" any eBook sold in France must cost the same as its paper versions"

[K-Thom]

Seems like li'l Sarkozy is getting a little too autocratic in his old days.

Clearly that would be a case for the Court of Justice of the European Union: Gouvernmental interference with a free market.

[Logseman]

Given that many EU countries have the book price-fix law in force, and that the very half of the budget of the EU goes for agricultural subsidies, I wouldn't trust the EU as a free market champion.

[K-Thom]

When you're right you're right. Such a law would indeed be very old-fashioned European.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Yes, I can see that they want to protect all the mom & pop booksellers. BUT....

Too bad that they didn't have these laws a hundred years ago.

Just think -
If you bought a car, you would have to pay the village blacksmith for horseshoes and a buggy whip.
If you bought a computer, you would have to pay for a slide rule.
If you bought a TV, you would have to pay for lime lights and greasepaint.
Must doctors buy blood letting equipment when they set up a practice?

I see that there are Project Gutenberg French language books available. Not that that will help current French authors.

French tradition is much, MUCH older than cars, slide rules, computers or TV.

Just look at the article about the history of the button here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A23623616

If you are in any doubt as to the importance of buttons in the 17th Century you could do worse than check out la Guerre des Boutons— not the film, but the actual war. French tailors started the war and won the first battle with the use of thread buttons. These were basically little balls of thread which worked admirably as buttons. The button-makers were furious, and in response they lobbied the government to help them. A law was passed and the war was won with the tailors being fined for the production of the thread buttons. Not satisfied with this, however, the button-makers went on to insist on the rigorous enforcement of the new law. They wanted homes and wardrobes searched and even suggested the arrest and fining of people for wearing clothing with thread buttons. It is unclear how far they got with their demands, beyond the authorities fining the tailors for their ingenuity.

Look here
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/12...gy_origin.html

Cory Doctorow made reference to the above little piece of history in several of his great speeches about how you just can't stop the progress.

Also here
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070110/004225.shtml


Just like tailors started to produce buttons from ... gasp ... cloth to avoid outrageous prices imposed by very powerful button-making guild [understand monopoly] we need people that start producing an ENHANCED version of the book in an e-book format. It ain't the same thing, is it? An enhanced version would have different foreword, can have included passages that were left out from the final edit and, perhaps an interview with the author or his dog. It would be entirely different thing, so it would have different price. You can even produce a paper version of the said enhanced work (with appropriate low price), let's say 300 copies.

Like we have seen many times, you can't stop progress with a half-baked law ;-)

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by zeb

I am French, so I could read the text from the senate website.... Very different from what the original article is claiming.

I should'a known not to trust the Internets. Unfortunately, my French is rather rusty these days.

It sounds like this is mostly a move to protect an author's royalty rates, then? Wow, government truly is evil and corrupt.

[Logseman]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Wow, government truly is evil and corrupt.

Undoubtedly.

[SameOldStory]

Gudy, zeb, thank you.

The part about the author getting paid the same, whatever the sale price, is moot. The publisher will be disinclined to lower the price because they'll lose more (proportionally) the lower the price gets.

But Harry's answer begs the question - Are the libraries more numerous and/or better stocked, in Europe, due to a higher demand brought on by the disinclination to buy high priced books? I can just see the return to the times when a well stocked personal library indicated great wealth.

Although I used the library frequently, I would save up $.75 to buy a book every now and then. Compare that to $10 books today. That was 50+ years ago, and books (in that state) were tax exempt.

The point being that if I were an average child in France, would I be able to buy a book? Would I even bother to read if a library wasn't nearby?

In the US, it seems that there is a cultural prohibition on reading and education. There was even a thread on MR about whether or not there was a stigma associated with reading in public.

Europe appears to be attempting to stop changes to the status quo re. publishers and small book stores. Is this not harmful to the public interests?

[zeb]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Gudy, zeb, thank you.

You're welcome.

The part about the author getting paid the same, whatever the sale price, is moot. The publisher will be disinclined to lower the price because they'll lose more (proportionally) the lower the price gets.

I think this law proposal (as I said before, the text has not been finalised and could be dropped during the "legislation" procedure) concerns the price fixing that editors benefit in all the country. Initially, this regulation was made to protect small bookshops from the price dumping of supermarkets (which could only offer a 5% discount for new titles) and was concerning paper books only. Now that the format is more and more shifting to electronic formats, they want to make the regulation similar, and at the same time try to protect the authors. It is not that a bad thing: some music performers in France and other countries did not receive royalties for mp3 or digital sales despite they had a contract for selling their music on CD. Some publishers were taking advantage of the format shifting to really scam them, pretexting their contract was only valid for physical supports! You'll say this is not surprising from RIAA and other **AA
Such regulation on book prices also exists in the UK for instance. I do not know for other countries in Europe. Furthermore, these regulations have to conform to the EU rights. That is why this law coul take a while before it is voted.

But Harry's answer begs the question - Are the libraries more numerous and/or better stocked, in Europe, due to a higher demand brought on by the disinclination to buy high priced books? I can just see the return to the times when a well stocked personal library indicated great wealth.

The point being that if I were an average child in France, would I be able to buy a book? Would I even bother to read if a library wasn't nearby?

In the US, it seems that there is a cultural prohibition on reading and education. There was even a thread on MR about whether or not there was a stigma associated with reading in public.

I lived near Paris when I was a kid, and our local library was ok. Some parisian libraries that are close to universities are fantastic and extremely well stocked and also keep old and rare books. Books have always been quite expensive, so it was a good source of literature. But my parents and myself have always been into reading, so we also bought a lot of books anyway. I think that is a cultural thing, like in the US. Except that in the US you got colour TV and plenty of channels before the French ! Maybe that explains a lot.

Europe appears to be attempting to stop changes to the status quo re. publishers and small book stores. Is this not harmful to the public interests?

Possibly, but in the UK where there is less regulation to protect small shops or resellers, supermarkets have replaced many shops. Just in Oxford, Tesco have opened two new store in the centre of the city, and ironically one of these shops has replaced a Borders. Knowing that this big supermarkets can easily dump or fix prices, it is not very good too.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by zeb

Such regulation on book prices also exists in the UK for instance.

No, it doesn't. We used to have such a thing (called the Net Book Agreement), but it was ruled to be unlawful in the 1990s). The UK book market is now completely unregulated, and it's not uncommon for supermarkets to sell bestsellers at half price or below.

[zeb]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, it doesn't. We used to have such a thing (called the Net Book Agreement), but it was ruled to be unlawful in the 1990s). The UK book market is now completely unregulated, and it's not uncommon for supermarkets to sell bestsellers at half price or below.

Ah ok, I did not know this, thanks for correcting. Indeed Tescos sometimes have highly discounted books or book sets. And now they are everywhere... Except academic, antiquarians and specialists, such as Botswell in Oxford, probably helped by the Uni proximity, I do not know a lot of small bookshops there.

[John F]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

...

In the US, it seems that there is a cultural prohibition on reading and education. There was even a thread on MR about whether or not there was a stigma associated with reading in public.

...

Could you provide a link? I searched for stigma and couldn't find the thread. Thanks.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by zeb

I do not know for other countries in Europe.

Germany.
They even have something similar to what French are proposing implemented for ebooks. And look at their e-book market. Waaaaay behind USA.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by John F

Could you provide a link? I searched for stigma and couldn't find the thread. Thanks.

Sorry John. When I search thru Statistics / Find all posts by SameOldStory there seems to be a 500 post limit. Mine ends with a post on 09-15-10.

The best I can recall the post started with me poking fun at some clueless newspaper writer about people using ereaders in public and how it was starting to become acceptable. I believe there was an allusion to it being considered antisocial behavior (although not worded that strongly).

[Salgueiros]

I think it is this thread. Somewhere halfway that stigmatizing question came into discussion.


https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95382

100th post!!

[John F]

Thanks.