Philip Anderson slams book "sham"

Meeting between Printing Industries and Federal Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Craig Emerson fails to provide solution for printers.

CEO of Printing Industries, Philip Andersen, said a meeting this week to broker an industry solution to the Productivity Commission’s recommendation for an end to territorial copyright, demonstrated that the Minister was out of touch with industry and community sentiment and with many of his own colleagues.

“The Minister’s solution to retain the territorial copyright provisions in name, but require local copyright holders to publish immediately, abandoning the 30-day provision, is an unworkable sham,” he said.

“On one hand, the copyright window of opportunity for local publishers to produce titles before being displaced by imports would be retained, but on the other hand the Minister is saying the titles must be produced ‘immediately’ instead of within the current 30-day period.

“Such a provision may work with blockbuster novels such as the Harry Potter books, where local copyright negotiations with overseas copyright holders are completed globally many months in advance and large print volumes provide access to print capacity, but for titles with print runs of less than 10,000 copies, this is unworkable.”

Andersen said the current 30-day rule was difficult enough to comply with taking into account what has to happen within that period.

“Firstly, a local publisher vying to become the local copyright holder has to negotiate with their overseas counterparts licensing arrangements, arrange for the files to be transferred, change the files as required for the Australian market, organise the printing, warehousing and distribution of the books, the marketing and launch – all within 30-days,” he said.

“While we sincerely welcome Emerson’s time to meet with the authors, publishers and ourselves, it has only served to highlight the Minister’s single minded attitude to support the bureaucracy against any practical solution proffered by the affected industries and against the overwhelming sentiment of the community.”

Printing Industries national manager for policy and government affairs, Hagop Tchamkertenian, said reform for the sake of reform was problematic and dangerous because it affects real people.

“The 30-day rule had worked efficiently over many years to deliver a wide range of books in a timely and competitive manner to Australian book readers as well helping maintain an Australian book printing industry,” he said.

“If the government wants to change something, then they could look at the 90-day rule which applies to existing/published book titles. This time-frame could be significantly reduced because it operates in different market conditions.

“But Emerson’s proposal will mean that less popular foreign based books that are unlikely to become best sellers will struggle to be published locally because no publisher or printer will be able to wave a magic wand to miraculously complete copyright negotiation, production and distribution as the Minister suggests, ‘immediately’ without the 30-day rule time limit.

“We therefore oppose the simultaneous publishing proposal as the basis for retaining territorial copyright. The 30-day rule must remain,” Hagop said.