Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
There is no point from a publisher's perspective and all publishers, I daresay, would like worldwide ebook rights. But authors and their agents have been reluctant to grant publishers worldwide rights, which is why, for example, Harry Potter was published by one company in Britain and another in the U.S. Authors and agents are able to make more money by breaking up rights than by bundling them.
And if worldwide rights are sold, they will cost a publisher a lot more than for restricted rights which means higher costs. And then there would be higher distribution costs as well. You cannot separate an ebook from its pbook version today. Perhaps in 10 years, but not today.
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Actually, your second paragraph contradicts the first. There is a point to GR from a publisher's perspective, and that point is that world-wide rights cost more. If they aren't set up to sell world-wide then it makes no sense to pay the extra cost.
I know, ebooks *are* easily sold world-wide, so logically, they should be purchasing restricted pbook rights & unrestricted ebook rights. They aren't though, and in my opinion it's because they don't want to change their contracts, which probably lump all book media together.
They might have a valid reason for that. Their current contracts have undoubtedly been thru the courts a few times so all the questionable clauses have been tested-and changed if the courts didn't approve of them.
Since the US court system, at least, has no provision for testing the validity of a contract prior to performance (or lack thereof) any change to the current 'proven' contract introduces risk that it will be ruled invalid.
I'm sure change will come-both authors & buyers will demand it-but it'll probably come slowly. Whether the publishers participate in the fast-moving Internet age or not, the courts assuredly do not.