Oz to Allow Parallel Importation of Books?

The Australian Government Productivity Commission has released an important report calling for lifting restrictions on parallel imports of books. Parallel imports are legitimate products that are imported from a source other than an "exclusive" national distributor.

Here's the media release and here's the Report.

The Commission found that:

By removing the restrictions, local booksellers would have the option of accessing better value books from overseas. Local publishers would have a strong incentive to make their prices more competitive and to look for greater efficiencies in their operations, the report said.

Some books have important cultural value, but the Commission found that the support to Australian authors provided by the restrictions is poorly targeted. 'One of the Commission's concerns is that consumers pay higher prices for books, regardless of their cultural significance' the Commission's Deputy Chairman, Mike Woods, said. 'A second concern is that these costs to consumers generate greater benefits for overseas authors and publishers than they do for our local writers. In effect, Australian consumers are subsidising foreign book producers.'

Any of this sound familiar? Canada has its own very complex protective sui generis regime to prevent the normal rule of "exhaustion" and to exclude parallel imports of books where there is an "exclusive" Canadian distributor. This is found in s. 27.1 of the Copyright Act and the Book Importation Regulations. This regime affects the price, availablity and access to both new and used books by Canadians.

Clearly, since this regime was put in place more than a decade ago, a lot has changed - including the advent of easy cross border e-commerce for printed books. At times, especially under certain currency conditions, there has been much debate about whether Canadians pay too much for books.

I must say that I have no strong views on this subject at the present time. Books are clearly different things than chocolate bars. I recognize that there have been strong cultural augments in the past for restrictions on the parallel importation of books into Canada.

Whether Canada's regime has accomplished its purpose and whether it works well now or should be adjusted or repealed are questions well worth pursuing by one or more of Industry Canada, Canadian Heritage and the Competition Bureau.

(HT to Jamie Love. Keep the tweets coming!)

HK

New Zealand Considers Allowing Satire and Parody

New Zealand is now considering an explicit provision in its copyright legislation to allow for satire and parody.

This follows a recent amendment in Australia.

Section 41(A) of the Australian Copyright Act as amended in 2006 provides that:

A fair dealing with a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, or with an adaptation of a literary, dramatic or musical work, does not constitute an infringement of the copyright in the work if it is for the purpose of parody or satire.

The Gowers report in the UK recommended such an amendment. The US Supreme Court confirmed in the 1994 Acuff-Rose "Pretty Woman" case that a right of parody exists under the fair use provisions in American law.

That leaves Canada alone without an actual satire or parody right or a willingness to seriously consider it amongst the major common law jurisdictions to which we normally compare ourselves. Even France, where copyright is taken very seriously, has such a right.

It is understood that the main opposition to such a right comes from certain increasingly isolated voices in the Canadian music industry, who have managed to keep the issue off the table in the last two bills.

How the denial of such a right could possibly hurt composers or music publishers is difficult to understand. There is no evidence that such a right has caused any harm in the USA in the 14 years since the Acuff-Rose decision. Indeed, the satire and parody genre has been indispensable to Western art and culture at least since the time of Aristophanes in Athens in the fifth century BC.

I guess that things take a while to percolate through in Canada.

HK

Jeremy's "Lose Weight" resolution - Oz Not an Example

As promised, Jeremy de Beer has outlined his second New Year's resolution....to lose copyright weight, so to speak.

He points out that Australia now has a 645 page - yes 645 page - long Copyright Act, as a direct result of American pressure to ratify the WIPO treaties in the DMCA mode.

I would point out that Australia, which is home to several brilliant copyright scholars, is, however, possibly the worst example Canada could look at with respect to the results of recent American lobbying influence. Note the recent de-election of John Howard's party and Mr. Howard personally as well. This was not likely over copyright but apparently very likely over Mr. Howard's pro-Bush/war in Iraq stance.

It seems that this is not a time of automatic deference to American foreign policy wishes. And it seems that copyright has made the leap from occasional academic articles and court cases to front page news and the main stream media - page one of the Globe and Mail on Saturday, December 22, 2007.

But lest I forget, while a 645 page or so copyright act may do very little good for creators and very much harm for users and consumers, it would certainly be terrific news for lawyers looking for more work.

HK