RE: US consumer purchase of international editions

[<Toby.GREEN@oecd.org>]

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