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Originally Posted by sabredog
It does make you wonder if the agency 5 publishing houses actually realise that geographic restrictions would certainly contribute more to the increase in ebook piracy than DRM ever has.
Or maybe they do and simply do not care. Preferring to cry "foul" and "woe is us" when they discuss piracy issues without trying to make the changes needed to an anachronistic distribution and rights model.
When you attempt to buy an ebook from an Australian author and you are an Australian resident and cannot, something is clearly not right.
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The agency 5 are no different in any way than the big music labels or the movie houses or any of the big corporate power groups. They're stuck in an old model that's "comfortable" to them, and they utterly refuse to change, because to them, change is frightening.
We've been seeing this exact situation happening in a lot of other industries as well. Being a formerly high ranking member of the FOSS community, and a top ranking tech journalist, has given me an interesting view of everything going on in that little part of the world, what with the battle going on for media freedom, software freedom, and so much more, its allowed me to see a lot of things I wouldn't otherwise see or know about.
What you are seeing with the agency 5 is only the beginning. If they continue following the same path as everyone else has, we're in for some pretty scary times ahead for the next 20-30 years. I say this because the book industry seems to be anywhere from 5-20 years behind other industries as far as major changes go. Being part of the "media" industry, they will undergo many of the same upheavals and changes as the others, but at a much delayed pace. I think that will scare them even more, and may result in some rather nasty kickbacks and throws of terror as they watch the other branches of the media industry get battered about in the storms of change, and then realize that those same storms are coming their way as well, and are totally unavoidable.
So in the end, while I'm not entirely certain what all will happen to the publishing industry, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will mirror what's happening to other industries in quite a few ways. And until these vain attempts at forestalling the inevitable come to an end, things are going to get messy.