Digital goods
Paying a storefront that cannot operate here
Most digital sellers require two conditions: a card drawn on a permanent balance, and a market whose prices they can observe. The Republic supplies neither, so storefronts refuse the country at checkout.
Why the storefronts refuse
A storefront asks for a payment card drawn on an accumulable balance. Residents hold no such balance, since the unit of account here is personal, expiring and non-transferable, and essential goods are furnished free at the point of use.
Pricing is the second obstacle. A seller fixes the price for a market by observing what that market pays, and the Republic pays for nothing in money, so the seller has no figure to work from and omits the country.
What the cooperative does about it
-
A member names the item and the storefront
The member names the exact title, edition and platform. A screenshot of the storefront page assists the request, and the teller takes one where the member cannot.
-
The cooperative buys it from Dublin
Payment goes from the cooperative's account to the seller, in euro where the seller takes euro. The purchase is made in the cooperative's name as agent for the member, and the member's name goes on the licence.
-
The key or the account credential arrives on paper
The key arrives by post in a sealed envelope, at the communal office the member named. The terms of the licence come with it in full, translated where the seller published no version in a language of record.
-
The member redeems it
Redemption happens on the member's own machine over the public information system. The cooperative keeps no copy of the key once it has been handed over.
What the cooperative will pay for, and what it will not
| Kind | Answer | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A game licence bought outright | Yes | The most common request |
| Software licence, perpetual | Yes | Free and open software is obtained without payment and without this cooperative |
| An ebook or an audiobook | Yes | Where the library holds no copy and can obtain none |
| A single journal article | Yes | The library is asked first; most requests are met there at no cost |
| A subscription that renews | On terms | Twelve months at most, paid once, with no standing authority to take more |
| Purchases made with a wallet balance held on the storefront | No | A balance held abroad in a member's name is an accumulation |
| Goods within a game bought with a storefront currency | No | The currency functions as a store of value |
| A licence resold by a member afterwards | No | Void under the seller's terms and under the law of the Republic |
Warnings given before payment
A licence is permission to use, revocable on the seller's terms, and it ends when the seller ends it. The cooperative obtains the same terms the seller offers anyone else.
A licence tied to a server ends when the server is withdrawn. The Commissioner for Future Generations objected in 2026 to purchases of this kind, on the ground that the cost falls on a member with no means of keeping the service running. The objection was answered and the purchases continue, with this warning attached to each one.
A licence forbidding study, repair or transfer conflicts with the knowledge commons of the Republic. Purchase for personal use remains permitted.
Refunds
Where a seller refunds, the money returns to the cooperative and then to the member's brought-in balance in euro. A purchase made against residual units refunds to the common pool. The units expired with the period, and a refund restores none of them.
A member holding a brought-in balance may pay from it instead, which keeps the refund available.
Free and open software requires none of this. The public information system carries mirrors of the common distributions, and the Planning Secretariat publishes its own methods and code on the same terms.