[Soldim]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

Uh...The price fixing in France are imposing the government's will on consumer choice

Fortunately for them, they have a democratic elected government and just during the last months reaffirmed their support for the socialist party which strongly supports the fixed book prices.

and holding back innovation in France.

Nah, that's an argument I won't buy. it is as easy to claim that having many small bookstores provides the necessary variety in reading material customers demand. Hence, no need to move to an eReader and electronic stores with lots of choice.

Those mom and pop stores are remaining in business at the expense of corporations, but also at the expense of consumers who would have gone elsewhere if given the choice;

They still have a certain extend of choice, last time I checked amazon.fr was still up and running offering quite a few eBooks. FNAC has an eBook store with a rather extended choice as well. There's smaller stores around too. However, the fact that mom and pop stores are able to successfully compete with these conglomerates shows that those large corporations have trouble increasing their market share if the price aspectis taken out of the equation.

French consumers are effectively being (indirectly) taxed to support this business model.

They choose it and keep supporting it, kudos to them!

I think most book readers loves the idea of bookstores, but given the choice most here have gone with ebooks over physical books.

I for sure have, my French wife sometimes reads books on our Kindle, and sometimes buys those dead-tree things in small stores. She seems rather happy with that deal and is generally more satisfied with the quality and diversity of contemporary French fiction then I am with the quality and diversity of available English fiction.

No doubt the price fixing laws in France are there to protect what they see as French culture, but I would remind them that it is dying cultures that are the ones that see the need to strenuously protect themselves.

I have lived both in the US and in several Western European countries and would have to frankly say that many big towns in the US are cultural deserts even when compared to rather smallish European cities, let alone places like Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam or Zurich. From what I have heard and read left and right I do not seem to be the only persons with that perception and would claim this cultural differences is rather an established fact than anecdotal evidence. What these European places have in common is that many, if not all, of their cultural endeavors are either subsidized, protected in some way or both. Hence, your statement that it's dying cultures that protect themselves seems somewhat far-fetched to me.