The Productivity Commission has released its draft report into the copyright restrictions on parallel importing books:
Australia’s Parallel Import Restrictions (PIRs) for books should be modified as follows.
• PIRs should apply for 12 months from the date of first publication of a book in Australia. Thereafter, parallel importation should be freely permitted.
• If a PIR-protected book becomes unavailable during this 12 month period, then parallel importation should be freely permitted until local supply is re- established, or the expiry of the 12 month period allows for generalised parallel importation.
• Booksellers should be allowed to overtly offer an aggregation service for individual orders of imported books under the single use provisions.
All other aspects of the current PIR arrangements should continue unchanged, including the 30 day rule.
All to be topped up with what appears to be the now mandatory 5 year review to see if it’s working.
I wonder how many books your local bookseller will have to order at once before he or she will start to consider absorbing the cost of freight? Of course, we can always hope that they also find out about addall.com and all those other internet sites rather than using that complicated clunky thing they play with on their computers while you are growing a beard.
Links to the full report here.