copyright
Copyright restriction in other countries
<p>Amazon.com sometimes refuses to sell me audiobooks. The message is as follows:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/8SQAS.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/8SQAS.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>I don't understand how a copyright can be enforced in <em>other countries</em>. Surely copyright holds for a specific country where it is registered, and has no enforceable jurisdiction in others. Is this type of copyright restriction valid? Under what law?</p>

<p>I can buy the digital text, so this issue is with the copyright for the audio only.</p>

<p>Two bases in law can think of besides Amazon just being cautious:</p>

<ul>
<li>As mentioned by tripleee's comment, there could be a specific agreement between Amazon and the copyright holder. Amazon needs consent of the copyright holder because one of the rights granted in copyright law is the right of distribution.</li>
<li>Copyright law is on a per-country basis, additionally the international Berne Convention requires foreign works be treated equally to domestic works (rule of the shorter term being the major exception).  For example, if I as a Canadian publish an original work, I can not only assert my rights in Canadian courts under Canadian law, but I could theoretically also assert my rights in French courts under French copyright law.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Copyright is mutually recognised in most countries</h2>
<p>Of the 206 sovereign states in the world 178 are signatories to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Berne Convention</a> which gives domestic copyright protection to works produced in other member states.</p>
<p>Book publishing has traditionally been regional - one company pays the author for the rights in Europe, another in North America and so on. Amazon does not have distribution rights to this audiobook where you are. Someone else may or the author may still hold those rights personally. Audio and text books are different copyright works and can have different arrangements.</p>
