The Australian Productivity Commission released a draft report on Parallel Importation of Books today. In summary it recommends publishers get 12 months protection in the market noting that most sales occur in the first 12 months, and has predictably infuriated the industry.
The impact of the recommended changes however depends entirely on whether they define in legislation first publication of a book as the first time the content (literary work) appears in print or the particular edition (or format) is printed. The former does shake up the market and would appear to be the intent of the recommendation but the latter would mean almost no change from the status quo. Much like the motion picture industry it's standard practice to gradually release different and cheaper editions over the life of a popular book, and this could potentially allow a publisher to hang on to their protection.
The other key point I picked up was that they noted that there is no good public statistical data that distinguishes Australian published content from Australian authored content. This is the fig leaf that protects the arguments that parallel importation will somehow destroy Australian publishing. If the only outcome is a better set of statistics then this will have been a worthwhile exercise in itself.
The APA is bound to fight tooth and nail against the recommendations, but from where I stand my employer is like a canary in a coalmine, and if disaster is going to hit then we should be the first to feel it. I just can't for the life of me see how that's going to happen to our local unsubsidised publishing program, or any other predominantly Australian publishing program.
