|
When I moved to Australia in the mid-eighties I was appalled to learn that not only parallel imports were banned, booksellers were not allowed to import books from the US. A new work by an American author can only be sold in a bookshop if it has either an Australian or British edition. As it takes some time before the British or Australian edition comes out, if at all, researchers who wanted the latest books in their field had to ask their friends in the US (if they are lucky enough to have them) to send them privately. This was before the Internet, Amazon and eBay and the publishers got away with it.
To think that they can still keep this system going to the present day is beyond belief. The publishing industry have only themselves to blame.
|