American ebook protectionism?

[AprilHare]

I was reading ficbot's post regarding Americans having the 'better deal' when it comes to ebook and the thought came to mind: is this restriction on ebooks really a form of limited protectionism for the American book market?
Ebooks are a booming market yet in large sections of this market only Americans can lay out money for ebooks. This naturally would lead to a ebook market swamped by American books for American tastes - leaving out the rest of the world publishing market.
Too bad if you're an Australian who has written a cracking good read and can't sell it as a ebook because of geographical constraints placed on readers, eh?

[FizzyWater]

Actually, I think it's the opposite. The authors/agents sell only certain rights to certain publishers. So a UK publisher gets to make the money from a JD Robb release, rather than an American publisher getting all the income. For example.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Actually, I think it's the opposite. The authors/agents sell only certain rights to certain publishers. So a UK publisher gets to make the money from a JD Robb release, rather than an American publisher getting all the income. For example.

Precisely. This whole geographical restriction business started when a UK publisher threatened legal action because books to which they had the UK publication rights were being offered for sale to UK customers by US bookstores.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Precisely. This whole geographical restriction business started when a UK publisher threatened legal action because books to which they had the UK publication rights were being offered for sale to UK customers by US bookstores.

So, instead of bringing the price down, so people would buy their books, they suid... Smart.

[HarryT]

It's even worse than that. In many cases, the UK publisher isn't even offering eBooks for sale.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

...
Ebooks are a booming market yet in large sections of this market only Americans can lay out money for ebooks. This naturally would lead to a ebook market swamped by American books for American tastes - leaving out the rest of the world publishing market.
...

You forget that not everyone is interested in ebooks in English. This would only apply to an English speaking market. Granted, it's a big market, but still....

WAG: Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese are also big potential markets.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Precisely. This whole geographical restriction business started when a UK publisher threatened legal action because books to which they had the UK publication rights were being offered for sale to UK customers by US bookstores.

But the very same publisher apparently has no problem with WHSmith (a UK bookseller) selling their ePubs to me (an American in the US), because I've done it.

[Moejoe]

We need to dissolve the archaic idea of 'geographical restriction'. The internet is its own country, without borders to trade. And the strange thing is that everybody loses under the 'geographical restriction' model, publishers, authors, booksellers and readers alike.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

We need to dissolve the archaic idea of 'geographical restriction'. The internet is its own country, without borders to trade. And the strange thing is that everybody loses under the 'geographical restriction' model, publishers, authors, booksellers and readers alike.

Agreed, but unfortunately the existing distribution contracts are already in place, specifying where the publisher is permitted to distribute the book to. It will only be in the "next generation" of authors that such restrictions will (one hopes) disappear.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's even worse than that. In many cases, the UK publisher isn't even offering eBooks for sale.

Hmmmm.... unexpected as it might be, I think the UK publishers are right.

Copyright law is supposed to protect publishers from one another, and they were right to threaten legal action upon their customers being poached by competitors with no rights in their jurisdiction. (Even if they do not offer the book themselves.)

The problem needs to be fixed by electronic rights not being territorialized in author's/publisher's contracts.

In the meantime, people screwed over by company's living with their rights have preeminently practical, if legally murky, ways of helping themselves. I'm for that too.

- Ahi

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

We need to dissolve the archaic idea of 'geographical restriction'. The internet is its own country, without borders to trade.

Tell that to China.

Every nation has its own rules and its own copyright restrictions. Whose laws do you adopt? How do you reconcile the different rights owners, who have invested time and resources into various versions?

I don't think you're going to wipe out decades and/or centuries of copyright, patent and trademark laws and assigned rights overnight just because there's a new ability to transfer data across borders.

[RobbieClarken]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Too bad if you're an Australian who has written a cracking good read and can't sell it as a ebook because of geographical constraints placed on readers, eh?

Joshua Gans, Australian economist and author, wrote about this:

HERE is a curious fact: as an Australian, I cannot buy my own book. Now that isn't quite true. I can buy the locally published version of Parentonomics in bookstores here or I can get overseas bookstores to send me the non-Australian version. [...]

But that isn't the cheapest way to get the book. If you have a Kindle - Amazon.com's e-Reader - you can get the book for $A12.59, which is 40 per cent of the Australian bookstore price. I've had an opportunity to try it out and it is by far the best way to read my book as well as being the most cost-effective. Not being a US resident, I cannot own my book that way - well, at least not without jumping through hoops to violate Amazon's terms and conditions or something like that. Let's face it, when an author is barred from owning a copy of their own book, something is wrong.

So why is it possible for hard copies of books to move across international borders but not electronic copies? The answer is that publishers, who have intellectual monopolies over these works, for their own reasons have not done the deals to make it possible. Regardless of what I, as an author, might like, a gatekeeper is standing between my readers and my book.

Hopefully the government will observe the Productivity Commission's advice and abolish the parallel import restrictions so overseas publishers can legally sell us ebooks. I'm not holding my breath for most Australian publishers to even realise the technology exists.

[Kali Yuga]

"So why is it possible for hard copies of books to move across international borders but not electronic copies? The answer is that publishers, who have intellectual monopolies over these works, for their own reasons have not done the deals to make it possible."

Pretty much....

Which company winds up getting the rights and revenue from the e-books? Should an American company get exclusive rights, because the author is American? Or maybe the first company that the author deals with gets it?

Or: Let's say you're a mid-sized Aussie publisher, and a US publisher approaches you to publish a book -- and then withholds all e-book rights and revenues. On the day that you release the hardcover version, the US company publishes the e-book in Australia for a 33% lower price. That US publisher is now competing against you, with a product that has lower overhead and cost less. Doesn't sound very enticing to me, especially once e-books really take off.

I might add that as e-books take off, I expect these types of rights issues to proceed a bit smoother than they do today; and as the issues go away, the "sausage-making" of international rights will be ignored by the buying public.

As to importing paper books, there's a huge difference between importing a handful of copies to satisfy collectors, and importing thousands of copies if you don't have the rights....

[Kostas]

So why is it possible for hard copies of books to move across international borders but not electronic copies?

That's the question!
No satisfactory or rational answer until now.

[igorsk]

Baen did a smart thing and since quite a while ago added a non-exclusive worldwide ebook rights clause in their contracts.