First, let me say that Routledge is to be congratulated for devising such an “ingeniously insouciant cover”:http://www.routledge.com/common/jackets/weblarge/041526/0415267498.jpg for their new ‘Routledge Classics’ edition of The Gift (for some reason I also find the cover of the Jung volume compelling in an inarticulate way). But I must say I’m pretty dismayed to see what happens when I try to ‘read more’ about the book. If you click on it you are taken to a “‘country of origin'”:https://ecommerce.tandf.co.uk/catalogue/DirectLink.asp?ResourceCentre=ROUTCLASSICS&ContinentSelected=0&CountrySelected=0&USSelected=0&ChangeCountry=0&search_text=041526748X&SearchGroup=PRISBN&results_order=ByTitle&domregion=us&Referrer=routledge-classics page where you must give them your physical location before they will show you anything about any of the books. Why? According to Routledge,

As a publisher we take copyright issues very seriously. Not all of our publications are available in all territories, and in addition we undertake to distribute other publishers [sic] product in some (but not all) territories. We use your location to ensure that we only display products which are available for purchase in your area.

The idea that copyright issues dictate you telling a website where you are from is just simply ridiculous. Copyright law is (newsflash) harmonized within the United States, so there is no need for me to tell Routledge where I’m from. Second, no one is violating any copyright law anywhere when they buy books in print abroad and have them shipped over to their house (although I admit, ianal, and there may be some weird ‘distribution’ thing going on. But I doubt it).

Routledge wants 1) metrics metrics metrics and 2) to get you to the right part of their ecommerce website. It is perfectly understandable that they should want both of these things. My point is not some Politech-like libertarian one about web privacy. My point is simply that Routledge is simply making information about their books 1 click farther away than it needs to be — in my case it was, as Richard Attenborough might put it, A Click Too Far. It’s also lamentable that copyright is the new liability when it comes to excuses that people turn to when they decide to do (or not do) something. Drives me up the wall I tell ya.

Ok, I’m done. Thanks for listening. I feel much better.