Death of author unlikely

The other claim from industry interests and authors is that removing import restrictions will undermine territorial copyright.

But even if import restrictions are in the Copyright Act, they are not necessary to protect copyright.

In every book there are two property rights. The first is the physical book: the cover, pages, binding and ink. The second is the copyright, which is the order of the text on the pages. So long as a book is printed in a country that is a party to international copyright treaties, import restrictions don't do anything for copyright; they only protect the publishing and printing industries and unnecessarily hike the price of books.

But the real problem for the industry is that by opposing book imports it is sticking its head in the sand. We all know the direction of retail book sales isn't just through the local bookstore. The real growth of sales is through the internet. Pending foreign exchange fluctuations, books are regularly cheaper to buy on Amazon and import into Australia, even with postage costs.

The recommendations from the Productivity Commission review should have been a wake-up call to industry that government-sponsored protection in a global economy won't last forever. Instead of trying to perpetuate protection, the industry should be using the remaining three years of protection to make structural adjustments and become globally competitive. And the best way to do that is to find ways to reduce costs and pass on the benefits to consumers.

The book industry may fear the removal of import restrictions, but consumers won't want imported books if those produced in Australia are the same price or cheaper anyway.