Regulatory Regime for Books in Australia

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I've covered a little of the debates regarding the Productivity Commission's report of some months back that recommended changing the current book importation rules for Australia.  Basically, a lot of the large book chains in Australian wanted an open market on books.  That would mean that any book could be sold in Australia at any time from any publisher.  This was supposed to mean that book prices would fall across the board - higher competiton and all that.  Most writers, literary associations and publishers were not convinced, and a large campaign was mounted to get the Federal Government to maintain the current arrangements.

In a Press Release from the Ministers of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research today, Dr Craig Emerson has stated that the current regime for book importation will remain.

This is what is known as "a good thing".

An interesting sentence in the PR reads as follows: "In the circumstances of intense competition from online books and e-books, the Government judged that changing the regulations governing book imports is unlikely to have any material effect on the availability of books in Australia."  Something more to ponder on the new book formats. 

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HOORAY!!!! We should all give a big thank you to the Australian Society of Authors in particular, and to Dr Jeremy Fisher, outgoing executive director of the ASA, who have done a splendid job of organising the troops.

What wonderful news.

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This page contains a single entry by Perry Middlemiss published on November 11, 2009 4:51 PM.

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