By John Considine
Last Thursday over 300 books went on sale in what publishers labelled "Super Thursday". One of those 300 books was Roy Keane's The Second Half. Another was Kevin Pietersen's KP: The Autobiography. Two books by high profile sports people. Probably because the individuals were high profile, electronic copies were circulating "free of charge" within days. My students tell me it is pretty easy to get such books online without paying for them. Some see the link between such open access and events like the closure of the University bookshop.
Pirated copies is only one of the threat from the internet facing bricks & mortar bookshops. Another threat is the competition they face from online book retailers like Amazon. Should such competition be allowed? It is not uncommon for consumers to visit the bricks & mortar bookshop, examine the hardcopies, and then to purchase the books online. The practice also extends to sportswear. A consumer might determine their footwear size and brand from a visit to the bricks & mortar shop and then proceed to purchase the footwear online. It could be argued that the online retailers are free-riding on efforts of the bricks & mortar outlets.
Does such competition need to be regulated? The French believe so. In an effort to maintain the local bookshops they have a law that limits the discount that can be offered on the centrally fixed price of books. Last year they also stopped Amazon from offering free delivery. The belief is that once the online retailers have wiped out the network of bookshops then they will raise prices. They may well wipe out the bookshops. Whether prices will subsequently rise is less clear.
Pirated copies is only one of the threat from the internet facing bricks & mortar bookshops. Another threat is the competition they face from online book retailers like Amazon. Should such competition be allowed? It is not uncommon for consumers to visit the bricks & mortar bookshop, examine the hardcopies, and then to purchase the books online. The practice also extends to sportswear. A consumer might determine their footwear size and brand from a visit to the bricks & mortar shop and then proceed to purchase the footwear online. It could be argued that the online retailers are free-riding on efforts of the bricks & mortar outlets.
Does such competition need to be regulated? The French believe so. In an effort to maintain the local bookshops they have a law that limits the discount that can be offered on the centrally fixed price of books. Last year they also stopped Amazon from offering free delivery. The belief is that once the online retailers have wiped out the network of bookshops then they will raise prices. They may well wipe out the bookshops. Whether prices will subsequently rise is less clear.
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