Re: US consumer purchase of international editions

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

Toby,

This is one of those areas where the vision and the reality are 
very far apart. A global copyright regime at this time (yes, 
times change) would actually reduce distribution of books and 
other published material.

Why this should be so is that the bulk of formally published 
information at this time is (a) still in book form (b) still in 
print and (c) targeted primarily to consumers.  If it were 
otherwise, that is, if we were talking about academic "papers" or 
scientific datasets--or for that matter, corporate data, such as 
market research reports--we could throw geographical rights 
issues out the window.  But most publications are sold in bricks 
and mortar stores, not from a Web site.  It is hard for people 
who work with digital media all day to realize that Barnes & 
Noble in the U.S. sells three times as many books as Amazon, and 
even Borders, which has been reduced to a struggling enterprise, 
is selling perhaps half again what Amazon sells. Outside of 
mobile markets, the U.S. has the highest percentage of digital 
sales anywhere.  I am reminded of William Gibson's wisecrack, to 
the effect that the future is already here; it's just not evenly 
distributed.

Since publishing is still largely a print and bricks-and-mortar 
activity, those geographical rights issues are important.  I 
doubt Random House has much of a distribution mechanism in 
Thailand, or that Bloomsbury is doing blockbuster business with 
its own sales force in Paraguay. These geographical rights issues 
are going to be with us for some time.  Were they to disappear 
before a fully digital infrastructure were in place, many books 
simply wouldn't get beyond their home territory.

We can look forward to years, perhaps decades, of complicated, 
frustrating copyright issues.  It will give us something to 
do--paraphrasing Dylan, when we are tired of ourselves and 
Facebook.

Joe Esposito

On 9/21/09 7:20 PM, "Toby.GREEN@oecd.org" <Toby.GREEN@oecd.org> wrote:

> This case is a wonderful illustration of something that has been
> bothering me for some time. Next month, at the Frankfurt Book
> Fair, rights managers from publishers around the world will be
> making deals based on geographic territories. In a pre-Internet
> age it made sense to let someone local handle a book's marketing
> and distribution. However, in a world where ICT has
> created/facilitated the Internet, POD and just-in-time business
> models, I think this geographic-based business model is going to
> fail. This is going to have big implications for the publishing
> industry (and for Book Fairs) because consumers will not put up
> with significant price differentials such as the one detailed
> below when it is so easy today to learn about lower prices and to
> purchase from low-priced markets.
>
> Claudia asks from a copyright angle - how does one address this
> question? In my view, quite simply. Any copyright owner now has
> to consider the market from a global perspective, not as a series
> of local markets. Boundaries will be marked, if at all, by
> language, not by geography. This means changing distribution
> arrangements - using local partners if necessary - under a global
> copyright regime.
>
> Of course, this is going to produce challenges. Costs are not the
> same everywhere nor are purchasing powers (a US student might
> afford $180, a Malaysian probably cannot - but then again, a US
> student from a poor background may be less able to pay $50 than a
> well-off Malaysian - reinforcing the point that geographic
> boundaries are pretty artificial when it comes to markets!) so
> prices won't be the same everywhere, but the gaps between them
> will close. This is going to be a big challenge for book
> publishers - a major cultural and operational shift. But it's
> entirely possible, I would have thought. After all, the world's
> scholarly journal and book publishers have been operating on a
> global copyright basis for decades.
>
> Toby Green
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of claudia holland
> Sent: 20 September, 2009 4:23 AM
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: US consumer purchase of international editions
>
> I was recently contacted by a parent who had purchased his
> college-aged child a textbook from an online source. He bought a
> hard copy mathematics textbook through a vendor represented on
> Amazon.com. The online information did not indicate that the book
> was an international edition of a Pearson publication that was
> "illegal" to purchase for use within the US or Canada. When the
> parent received the shrink-wrapped text, there was a notice
> plastered inside the wrapping on the book itself with language
> warning consumers about these limitations of use. The book came
> from Malaysia, apparently, and was advertised at less than
> one-third the cost of the text in the US (~$50 vs ~$180). No
> wonder he bought it.
>
> The parent was perturbed for several reasons: 1) the exorbitant
> mark-up for the same exact book available in the US, 2) the lack
> of consumer information from the Malaysian vendor (& the fact it
> was shipped to the US at all, given the warning), and 3) the lack
> of concern on the part of Amazon.com whose service was being used
> by the Malaysian vendor. As a copyright educator, how does one
> address this dilemma? Students and their parents want to do the
> ethical thing and purchase a work from the rightful content
> owner. In this case, they found out they are being fleeced by
> those who scream the loudest about their distribution rights!
>
> Claudia Holland