Productivity Commission Inquiry
The Australian publishing industry is united in its arguments against surrendering Australia’s copyright.
Such surrender will mean the “right” to publish in Australia will become meaningless, and as a result:
• Authors will need to sign with international publishers in order to get paid for sales in their local market. Unless an author is well-established this will be near impossible.
• Publishers will lose established authors. There will be no incentive to invest in unknown authors, as once they become successful they will reach agreement with an international publisher and there will be no return for the local publisher on their investment.
• Authors who do continue with Australian publishers might find an international version of their book dumped in the Australian market and the author receives smaller or no royalties for the work undertaken. These books will be in a different format and of different quality to the books we are used to — not to mention the changes to the language and spelling that accompany international publications.
• Without the ability to publish the full range of writers and books, Australian publishing will wither. There will be fewer Australian authors and fewer Australian published books in book stores.
• There are large economic flow-on effects. There are three major printers in Australia for the publishing industry — there would be insufficient work for all to survive, jobs would certainly also be shed amongst illustrators, designers and distributors.
There is no reason to give this industry away. At a time when the Federal Government is supporting the car and childcare sectors, why give away a valuable publishing right and its associated jobs?
The surrender of our copyright would result in significant economic, cultural and social loses, but there is no evidence to suggest there would be a single benefit to Australia or Australians.
No other country is willing to give up its copyright — because it means a local industry and local jobs. In fact it could be argued that the surrender of Australian territorial copyright amounts to a subsidy for the US and UK publishing industries because it allows them to dump their remainders in our market.
Other comparable copyright territories, for example Canada (annual turnover of Can$1.5 billion; 59% of books are Canadian-originated) proudly proclaim their legislative restriction of parallel importation as a significant mark of support for their domestic publishing industry.
Such surrender will mean the “right” to publish in Australia will become meaningless, and as a result:
• Authors will need to sign with international publishers in order to get paid for sales in their local market. Unless an author is well-established this will be near impossible.
• Publishers will lose established authors. There will be no incentive to invest in unknown authors, as once they become successful they will reach agreement with an international publisher and there will be no return for the local publisher on their investment.
• Authors who do continue with Australian publishers might find an international version of their book dumped in the Australian market and the author receives smaller or no royalties for the work undertaken. These books will be in a different format and of different quality to the books we are used to — not to mention the changes to the language and spelling that accompany international publications.
• Without the ability to publish the full range of writers and books, Australian publishing will wither. There will be fewer Australian authors and fewer Australian published books in book stores.
• There are large economic flow-on effects. There are three major printers in Australia for the publishing industry — there would be insufficient work for all to survive, jobs would certainly also be shed amongst illustrators, designers and distributors.
The surrender of our copyright would result in significant economic, cultural and social loses, but there is no evidence to suggest there would be a single benefit to Australia or Australians.
No other country is willing to give up its copyright — because it means a local industry and local jobs. In fact it could be argued that the surrender of Australian territorial copyright amounts to a subsidy for the US and UK publishing industries because it allows them to dump their remainders in our market.
Other comparable copyright territories, for example Canada (annual turnover of Can$1.5 billion; 59% of books are Canadian-originated) proudly proclaim their legislative restriction of parallel importation as a significant mark of support for their domestic publishing industry.