Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Changing the laws won't change nearly as much as you think.
Second, this primarily helps a handful of nations that share a common language or the occasional expatriate. It might help NZ'ers buy from the US or UK, but won't do anything for French consumers waiting for a French translation of a Japanese book.
Third, you've got decades of contracts stipulating specific rights in specific nations for authors. You can't abolish tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of contracts just by waving your hand.
Fourth, chances are good that even if a publisher demands international rights to a book, at least some authors are going to balk at that -- especially if the royalty rate is the same.
Fifth, there are actually benefits to nation-based publication, primarily with marketing and local distribution. E.g. a sales campaign that works well in NZ may either get lost, or not make any sense whatsoever, in the US.
So no, you can't just change a couple of laws and fix the world overnight. The solution, of course, is to be patient -- which, last I checked, the average person today finds as palatable an option as eating sand.  |
But that is exactly my point. If point of sale would be at the vendor's (like pbooks) you don't need international rights to sell and transfer them online and all existing contracts stay valid.
Buying ebooks across borders is not about annoying the local publishers and in most cases not even about saving money. It is about availability. In large parts of the world there is no ebook version of the French translation of the Japanese book. There often is no print version of the French translation either. But if you want the book and feel confident in your Japanese reading abilities you can order any print book in any Japanese shop and have it shipped to you.
People will always prefer to buy in their local (online-)shops. No additional accounts, no language barriers, no exchange fees. I do not see the end of civilization in aligning selling ebooks to selling pbooks. As you said yourself it is a small market niche and it will shrink with the increase of local offerings.
Yes, there is the tax problem
(isn't it always). In the pbook parallel they are collected by customs. This is not possible if the book is transfered online. But I am quite sure most selling and distribution software could handle this. And if several shops decide they do not want the hassle others will fill in.
You will have the tax problem anyway, even if the seller has international distribution rights.
Personally I think it would be easier to change the legal definition of "point of sale" for ebooks than to renegotiate existing contracts or trying to restructure the whole publishing industry.