Re: [tlug] Pretending to be outside Japan?

[Joe Larabell <fred62@example.com>]

On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 3:52 PM, Darren Cook <darren@example.com> wrote:

I'll set a challenge: if anyone can buy an mp3 (documented steps) from
within Japan in such a way that Amazon have no evidence you are in
Japan, I'll buy you a beer :-) The kudos you will get will be worth far
more, of course...

In my case, my Amazon.com account existed from before I moved to Japan and I never bothered to update the primary address. Still, if you have at least one Stateside credit card with a US address, you should be able to set-up an account that's not connected to Japan at all (yeah... it's best if you can do all that before moving to Japan, but... being here physically isn't as much of a problem as not having a credit card in the US). Without going into detail (for reasons I hope are obvious), I happen to have login credentials on certain Stateside machines on which I use NX (and VNC before that) to display a desktop here. It's was trivial to fire up Firefox on the remote machine, order music, dowload it while still on the remote machine, and then transfer the files to my own machine here. Before Amazon.co.jp offered mp3 downloads, that was the only way I could purchase and d/load music from Amazon. Black? Maybe. But if I d/loaded the files while on a business trip to the States and hand-carried them to Japan on my laptop, that wouldn't be illegal so why would it be a problem if my Stateside alter-ego purchased the files and transferred them here as personal property? These days I use Amazon.co.jp, of course.... but I'll bet I could still d/load using a Stateside machine if I wanted to.

Now... if you don't have a credit card issued in the US, that may be more of a challenge, but... aren't there places you can apply for one online? All you'd need is an address in the US that works (ie: a remailing service, private PO Box, etc).

Do you have a UK-based credit card? Maybe you can set-up an account with Amazon.co.uk for buying digital content in English -- then the IP address is probably the only hoop you'd have to jump through.