July 23, 2010

Canadian government asks Canadian publishing industry: But how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

by Dennis Johnson

First, in 2002, the Canadian government allowed Amazon.com to operate in Canada despite protectionist laws against foreign ownership that clearly indicated they shouldn’t, and despite vociferous protests from Canadian booksellers.

Then the Canadian government decided to allow Amazon to operate its own distribution warehouses in Canada, again despite actual laws that seeming should have prevented it — law that, as a Globe and Mail report put it, “protects the bookselling business from foreign ownership because it is part of the cultural sector.” This move, too, brought about some intense protests.

More recently, the Canadian government has been considering a bid to allow for the importation of cheaper books from bigger competitors in other countries such as, well, you know. That, too, has drawn provoked heated controversy.

Now, the Canadian government is “asking Canadians to share their thoughts on the domestic publishing industry and whether changes need to be made to Canada’s foreign investment policy for the book sector,” says a CBC News report. It says “Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore has launched a review of the Revised Foreign Investment Policy in Book Publishing and Distribution.”

What does that mean?

The three-phase evaluation process seeks to update the policy for today’s drastically different publishing landscape, which features far fewer bricks-and-mortar booksellers, dominant online retailers like Indigo and Amazon, changing digital technology such as e-books and e-readers, and an easier-to-access global audience.

Well, one would think that horse long out of the barn and into the glue factory, but Moore has invited “Individual Canadians, literary associations, publishers, book distributors and retailers” to submit comments at a special government website, made just for the occasion.

Democracy!

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

4 Comments

Jack at 10:37 am on July 23, 2010

Dennis,

We Canadians love Moby’s coverage of our book trade policy issues — few domestic journalists or bloggers do it as well as you — but you’ve made a couple of factual errors in this post.

Aside from the recent copyright bill that is currently before the House of Commons, no laws governing the Canadian book trade have been changed in recent years. The establishment of a warehouse by Amazon was done within the guidelines of the Investment Canada Act, which allow the Department of Canadian Heritage to permit virtually any foreign investment in book retail/distribution/publishing in Canada, so long as that investment is of “net benefit” to Canadians. Whether this new warehouse is indeed of net benefit is obviously debatable, but the Cultural Sector Investment Review (the section of government that decides these things based on a largely confidential review process) clearly decided it was.

As for parallel importation, the Canadian Booksellers Association has asked that laws restricting the import of those foreign books that have also been published in a domestic edition or are subject to an exclusive Canadian distribution agreement be repealed. This request has caused some controversy among independent booksellers, and does not appear to be broadly supported in the distribution or publishing sectors. No legislative changes have been made as a result of the CBA’s request; in fact, the revisions to the Copyright Act that are currently before the House leave those provisions of the law untouched.

It’s too early to say whether the current review of investment policy will help or hurt Canadian authors, retailers, distributors, and publishers. The discussion paper suggests a push towards deregulation, but for the moment nothing is set in stone. (At least we hope so!)
Jack at 10:37 am on July 23, 2010

Dennis,

We Canadians love Moby’s coverage of our book trade policy issues — few domestic journalists or bloggers do it as well as you — but you’ve made a couple of factual errors in this post.

Aside from the recent copyright bill that is currently before the House of Commons, no laws governing the Canadian book trade have been changed in recent years. The establishment of a warehouse by Amazon was done within the guidelines of the Investment Canada Act, which allow the Department of Canadian Heritage to permit virtually any foreign investment in book retail/distribution/publishing in Canada, so long as that investment is of “net benefit” to Canadians. Whether this new warehouse is indeed of net benefit is obviously debatable, but the Cultural Sector Investment Review (the section of government that decides these things based on a largely confidential review process) clearly decided it was.

As for parallel importation, the Canadian Booksellers Association has asked that laws restricting the import of those foreign books that have also been published in a domestic edition or are subject to an exclusive Canadian distribution agreement be repealed. This request has caused some controversy among independent booksellers, and does not appear to be broadly supported in the distribution or publishing sectors. No legislative changes have been made as a result of the CBA’s request; in fact, the revisions to the Copyright Act that are currently before the House leave those provisions of the law untouched.

It’s too early to say whether the current review of investment policy will help or hurt Canadian authors, retailers, distributors, and publishers. The discussion paper suggests a push towards deregulation, but for the moment nothing is set in stone. (At least we hope so!)
Dennis Johnson at 11:13 am on July 23, 2010

Thanks for the compliments and the corrections. Indeed, the Canadian government did NOT change laws as my post originally said. It does seem clear to me, and my smarter Canadian sources, that they acted against existing laws, though, and I have emended the post above to correct and clarify accordingly, including a few extra links.
Dennis Johnson at 11:13 am on July 23, 2010

Thanks for the compliments and the corrections. Indeed, the Canadian government did NOT change laws as my post originally said. It does seem clear to me, and my smarter Canadian sources, that they acted against existing laws, though, and I have emended the post above to correct and clarify accordingly, including a few extra links.