The Australian Productivity Commission recommends abolishing the prohibition on parallel import .
This is an important development because South Africa also has a prohibition on parallel import.
Parallel import prohibitions are legal rules which prohibit the importation of authorised copyright works sold in other countries. I’ll give a hypothetical example.
Sir Humphry Bassington-Smythe, the famous ornithologist, writes a book on migratory birds of the Indian Ocean, including South African and Indian birds. His London based publishers Empire Books sell the book in London for 7 pounds. Empire Books also sell a licence to an Indian publisher who sells the books in Indian for 15 rupees. Empire Books also sell a licence to Last Outpost publishers in South Africa who sell the book for R350.00.
Angry Native, a locally owned book shop, wants to buy the books legitimately sold in India, but the ban on parallel import in the prohibits them from doing so. Any South African could buy the book in India and bring it back with them for personal use, but bulk import is prohibited.
The effect of the ban is to prevent competition between authorised producers of a copyright work. South African and Australia have these bans as vestiges of their colonial inheritance, and its neo-colonial successor the Commonwealth Booksellers Agreement.
According to the Australian Productivity Commission:
‘One of the Commission’s concerns is that consumers pay higher prices for books, regardless of their cultural significance. 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.’
The Commission’s recommendation relies on an ‘extensive analysis of international book prices.’ It will be interesting to see whether empirically supported conclusions can effect a change in Australia.
