Australian Book sector gives up import protection

 09/11/2011 - By Robert Stockdill -Insider Retail
Australia’s book publishing and selling industry says the power of internet retailing has forced it to give up a long-standing battle protecting Australian publishers from parallel importing.

In the most surprising of 21 key recommendations delivered to Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister, Senator Kim Carr today, the The Book Industry Strategy Group (BISG) has recommended the timetable for retention of territorial copyright in Australia be reduced from 30/90 days to 14/14 days. The group represents Book retailers, authors, publishers and printers.

The Productivity Commission had in 2009 recommended the parallel importation restrictions on the local market be abandoned to increase competition and reduce prices for consumers. But publishers had successfully fought against the proposal claiming it would damage the local market, restricting opportunity for local authors due to a flood of cheap imported books from overseas.

Today’s report, however, recommends ‘that the Australian book industry formalise an agreed, industry-wide code of practice that will reduce the timeframe for retention of territorial copyright from 30/90 days to 14/14 days without the need to amend existing legislation. To support this, TitlePage will prove information to booksellers on the PIR status of individual titles. The code will be reviewed at the end of 12 months and subsequently at determined intervals to assess its effectiveness'.

That effectively gives local publishers a two week window of protection for new releases.
Explaining the u-turn, the group said the Australian marketplace had changed since 2009 rapid growth in online offshore retailing. Today’s consumer expect immediate access to books published in the English language, it said, with the internet having created “a truly global supply chain”.
The boom in digital books, which could be distributed over the internet from anywhere in the world in just seconds meant the old 30/90 day protection no longer provided protection in practise.

Another recommendation - one far less likely to be adopted by the government - is for the axing of GST on books to even the playing field with overseas online retailers - or the collection of GST on books consumers buy online from overseas. The Productivity Commission has already told the government this is not viable.
“The Book Industry Strategy Group advocates that the industry take control of its own environment and agree to a compromise position on the PIR conditions. A reduction in the restrictive period of supply of books will empower Australian booksellers to compete in the global marketplace, while continuing to provide a level of protection for rights holders in the local industry,” the report said.
In another recommendation, the BISG said the government should renegotiate postal treaties that now place Australia at a “severe disadvantage”.

Group chairman Barry Jones used the example of a 10kg parcel of books sent by airmail from the UK that cost $42.60 in postage. To send the same parcel from Australia to the UK would cost $237.50.
The BISG was established Carr and asked to review and assess the impacts of digitisation on the whole book supply chain.
"There will always be a place for the printed book but they have to adapt to changes and competition," Carr said.

In 2010, $2.3 billion worth of books were sold in Australia, of which $35 million went on ebooks. This is expected to grow to $2.8 billion by 2014, of which nearly a quarter will be ebook sales.
Other recommendations covered educational publishing, the supply chain and copyright issues.