Quote:
Originally Posted by JMikeD
He did bring an interesting point to light, though. In Germany it's illegal to discount books, even by online sales (I researched this after his email). As a consequence, there is a small bookstore on every corner, and a plethora of publishers. Of course, German doesn't appear to be a TV-centered country as the US is. Books are highly regarded as part of their culture there.
|
It used to be the same in the UK under the
Net Book Agreement. I think the wikipedia article is roughtly correct -- but I can't remember the exact details. As to how much the death of the Net Book Agreement has damaged the UK book industry, I can't say (perhaps others can say). We probably have less bookshops, but I'm lucky enough to still have an independent one in my town.
I remember claims of doom for the british book industry when the Net Book Agreement (I'm not calling it NBA for the benefits of our US readers
). Yet there still seems to be a large range of books available. And at least one or two publishers.