Philip Andersen, CEO of Printing Industries says a meeting this week with the minister to broker an industry solution to the Productivity Commission’s recommendation for an end to territorial copyright, demonstrates that the minister is out of touch with industry and community sentiment and with many of his own colleagues.
Andersen says, “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 continues, “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. For titles with print runs of less than 10,000 copies, this is unworkable.”
Andersen also says that the current 30-day rule is difficult enough to comply with taking into account what has to happen within that period.
According to Andersen, 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.
Andersen says, “While we sincerely welcome Mr 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.”
Also commenting, Hagop Tchamkertenian, national manager for policy and government affairs at Printing Industries says reform for the sake of reform was problematic and dangerous because it affects real people.
Tchamkertenian says, “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 continues, “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.”
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