Re: US consumer purchase of international editions

[Jean-Claude Gu�don <jean.claude.guedon@umontreal.ca>]

Market segmentation by region of the world has nothing to do with 
copyright. it has all to do with extracting maximum profit from 
each market by playing on the total "price x #sales". It is the 
same strategy with the zones for DVD's and just as reprehensible. 
it also works for drugs, and there is is downright abominable 
(remember US elders coming to Canada to buy drugs at about half 
the price of US prices a few years back)..

Nothing in copyright law says anything about marketing 
strategies. It speaks to modalities of property when applied to 
documents (in the widest sense) of all kinds, and only to that.

Moreover, and so far as I know, no country has any law capable of 
stopping a book from being introduced in a country even if the 
cover says "not for resale in x, y and z. I am not talking about 
books banned for whatever reasons here. Division of world markets 
between various distributors is based on contracts. It is 
implemented through contract laws, not copyright. In any case, at 
the individual level, the first sale doctrine allows me to resell 
a book from somewhere to be sold again in the US or elsewhere.

What I would hope for is that students should quickly organize 
(within the limits of the law) ways to bring in these cheaper 
volumes in their country and thus save a lot of money to their 
colleagues, perhaps make a little bit of money themselves, and 
expose one of the most despicable strategies of multinationals. 
Or better still, students should get involved in the OER movement 
(open educational resources).

Jean-Claude Guedon

Le mercredi 23 septembre 2009 a 21:02 -0400, Joseph Esposito a 
ecrit :

> Oh, agree entirely with the diagnosis.  It's the remedy that
> eludes me.
>
> Arbitration is growing.  A couple undergraduates a few years ago
> at UCSD starting purchasing English-language science texts in
> China (with Chinese-language covers) and reselling them to their
> classmates. Undergraduates.  I can only see this situation
> worsening (or improving, depending on your point of view).
>
> Copyright is screwy. Even people who defend it, as I do, know it
> is screwy.
>
> Joe Esposito