Frustration with HD Tracks in the UK

Do you just have to use the blocker for the purchase or do you have to have it enabled for the download too?

I have mine running for the duration of my visit including the download(s). Connection speed is reduced but it's stable. No problems encountered in about 2 years and I have spent considerably more money at HDT than I paid for the software. I've also now covered the cost on price differences when the material was available from other stockists at higher prices. When HDT goes live in the UK I would not be surprised to see the  dollar prices quoted in pounds with no or little reduction. But we'll have to wait and see. As we will on availability of material because stock which for sale in US only (but not really) still won't be sold in the UK. Or will it? 

And all very valid points. Many thanks for the reply.

You can bet your house that it will be very close to the dollar price!

Could this apply?

In a 2013 court ruling on Craigslist v. 3Taps, US federal judge Charles R. Breyer decided that circumventing IP blocks in order to access a website (for example using anoynymous proxies) is a violation of CFAA, punishable by civil damages for “unauthorized access”.^[

Interesting point.  But this is different, in the one you quote the 'offenders' were extracting data from the site against the owners permission.

Interesting!

I doubt that HDtracks would sue you for circumventing the IP filter. On the contrary, they would probably sell happily to the rest of the world if Universal would let them.

I'd just like to make it clear that I have never used an IP blocker.

Furthermore, I believe my dog has been using my computer without my knowledge.

It's bad enough not being able to access the downloads because of the 'region restrictions' but then, if you are registered, they rub salt in the wound by continually sending emails with special offers you can't buy!

Yes, it can be irritating.

I don't know of any artist whose music I can't buy in any record store anywhere in the world, if their stock is sufficient and if there are not local laws banning the material on religious or moral grounds.  I've never bought an LP, tape or CD which says "only licenced to be played in the UK" or some such. Like DVDs and BD, this is a golden opportunity for the labels to hang price fixing on some misrepresented distribution arrangement masquerading as law. The US distributor may well be peanalised for knowingly attempting to sell off region when it overlaps with another distributor's deal but buyers can buy (the operative word being buy, not copy or steal) from whomever they like. 

Anyway, this nonsense is only going to get worse, so I'm watering a dead tree. Just don't let the labels pretend they own you - until they genuinely do, which with emerging generations of compliant sheep is only a matter of time.

I know, I just can't understand it. If I was the artist being presumably denied royalties because of this I would be seriously upset.

One of their recent highlights was a discount on the 'Best of British' which, of course, you can' t buy in it's country of origin. You really couldn't make it up.

I would think that there are two aspects to being able to sell downloads internationally. First, you have to have a contract with the content owner, and I suspect it would cost HDTracks more to distribute to other countries beyond the US.  Second, wouldn't they also need a contract with the local royalty collecting society for every country they want to sell In to?  I seem to recall it took iTunes many years to become global, so I suspect it will be even harder for a relatively small company like HDTracks to do the same.

For right now, I tend to doubt that HDTracks minds making sales to non-US residents, just so long as it doesn't lead to problems for them. When it comes to IP-spoofing, they currently seem to have a don't ask/don't tell policy. From an artist's perspective, they should still be getting paid, but it will be at the US royalty rate, and not at the local rate.  No clue if this makes a significant difference to them.

Hook

ROTF. That's just so classic.

I think you've touched on something which does need tightening up Hook, although I'm going to go a bit tangential. . If I buy music or movies when abroad I may have local tax levied when I reenter England. Likewise, HMRC (Customs) can intercept and surcharge on stuff I get from, for example, Amazon US which is posted to me.  To avoid these charges is not illegal. You have to stump up if required to.  Downloading from a US site like HDT (before IP blocking and since selectively) adds zero to my chances of getting surcharged.  Is this avoidance or evasion?

Well, maybe the suppliers themselves can answer this question. Someone posted here that HDT would unlock the IP block if asked to. I haven't asked them. But I have asked Qobuz and they lifted it. If Qobuz's well documented policy of block lifting on request was illegal, some of their stock would vanish. It hasn't.