Re: International E-book Sales Restrictions Explained

On 17/06/2012 04:25, Robotech_Master wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 1:49 PM, Chris<[email protected]>  wrote:
>
>    
>> "First sale" is from the copyright holder - in most cases, the publisher.
>> There
>> is no mention of consumers or middlemen in that legislation, only copyright
>> holders and "the public" - everyone else, including bookstores.
>>
>> Perhaps this is different in the UK?
>>      
>
> I would also add that publishers moved to stop international sale of
> e-books as soon as they realized they could and should. (Only took them
> most of a decade to realize it!)
>
> You would think that if they *could* legally challenge the international
> resale of paper books, they would have done so by now. Paper books have
> been sold by web, and before that by mail order, including internationally,
> for a lot longer than e-books have even *existed*.
>    

Chris,

There is no single group of people who are "publishers". If you are 
referring to the big six, then they were reluctant and late into putting 
out ebooks. If you are referring to the new entrants to publishing who 
have been joining in ever growing numbers for over three decades then 
world rights will have been among the decisions they individually made.

I am intrigued that you claim such comprehensive knowledge of actions in 
publishing. I must say I don't for myself since the business is so large 
and so varied one comes across previously unknown areas and systems all 
the time. I am not even sure when ebook output started, but you can 
certainly date it back to at least the first attempts of the late 
Professor Hart, founder of Gutenberg Press. I think it is still correct 
to say that the majority of ebooks are produced as pdfs, though these do 
not get the publicity that epub and asw and mobi and one or two others do.

I still have no idea what exactly you are so sure of over international 
sales orders. Unless you are in possession of  evidence of clear 
intentional breach of regional restriction by respectable and reputable 
companies, I contest that you are not talking of anything out of the 
ordinary. Books are sold and posted internationally, of course they are. 
But where restrictions apply any reputable company will observe those 
restrictions.

If you are talking of second hand and antiquarian books then you are 
into a different industry, or at least a sub branch of publishing. It 
might also be that a specialist bookseller keeps stocks of some rarer 
publications. But generally bookshops.

The best information I can find to make the point is this " If the title 
to the books remains with the publisher until they are sold, then the 
publisher often must bear the risk of loss in the event the books are 
lost or damaged, either in shipment or at the warehouse of the 
distributor." from  http://www.ivanhoffman.com/distributors.html. Ivan 
is one of the most knowledgeable IP lawyers in  the US. In the course of 
this article he points out that the contract between 
publisher/distributor/bookshop has many variations.

I have also tried to explain to you that international sales of 
copyright material are governed by international agreements, and 
observance is enshrined in American law as well as  in the laws of other 
countries. Most of all, can I impress upon you that business decisions 
are, by right, in the hands of the business and its owners. Why do you 
think you should be able to impose your ideas, which to my eyes, in any 
case, ignore the realities of the book industry?

Joseph Harris



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