[LINK] A call to arms - parallel book imports

[David Lochrin]

On Wednesday 15 July 2009 11:40, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> Someone else, a publisher, made the stupid statement that the 
> exchange rate affected price of books! He implied that when the 
> Aussie was higher that the price of books was less, or more 
> equitable. yeah, right, as if shelf prices changed. That's just crap. 
> I'm sure the chain bookstores change their prices on that basis ---- not.

There was a discussion on the ABC RN "Book Show" this morning in which one participant pointed out that Dymocks, who are pushing this reform, are there to make a profit.  They price books according to what the market will bear and lowering the import price will not result in a substantial reduction of shelf price, it will simply result in bigger profits.

Unfortunately the Productivity Commission seem to be a bunch of simple-minded economic rationalists.

I've previously heard a comment by one Australian author that his books sold in the US were "translated" for consumption there.  So for example, the word "footpath" became "sidewalk".  I strongly resent this cultural manipulation in the supposed interest of economic efficiency..

David