Slashdot Mirror
Swiss Voters Reject Book Price Controls
New submitter hinterwaeldler writes "In 2007 Switzerland abandoned book price control (which requires publishers to fix prices for their books and forbids any dealer to sell at another price), reducing prices by 30% to 50% for online buyers. The brick & mortar book stores lobbied the parliament into creating a bill to reinstate the price fixing, against which a referendum was taken by liberals and the Pirate Party, forcing a popular vote. On March 11, after an intense debate, Swiss voters decided against book price control (German-language original) with a majority of 56%."
... because that is exactly what this initiative ("Buchpreisbindung") was aiming for. Protectionism is wrong, no matter what you name it.
Support a Europe-related section on Slashdot!
You must make laws to ensure its survival!
I'm just shocked that it was only 56%.
I'd have thought a greater portion of the Swiss constituency would have better sense than this.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
"...a majority of 56%"
Still sounds pretty divided to me.
Although I agree with the outcome. It is simply common sense. Prices at a brick and mortar store will be higher, you are paying for the convenience of buying something immediately. Online prices will of course be lower, they don't have the overhead, however you have to wait days, weeks for your order, as well as pay for shipping.
So no I don't feel bad for the dinosaurs of industry that think they can legislate profits. @%$#^! you. If the market says we want more online stores than brick and mortar, then so be it. Quit saying the market is king on one hand and with the other lobbying government to legislate monopoly powers to manipulate the market!
What on earth do you need to fix prices on books for? I could understand the argument for things people need (milk, gasoline, electricity), but price fixing for entertainment that is not a necessity??? Nuts.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
This is going to be one of those issues that ties many liberals in knots. On the one hand, they like the idea of fighting corporate greed and collusion price-fixing, on the other hand they're big on romanticizing local mom-and-pop stores (like many of the bookstores that will be hurt by online competition). But it seems to be the inevitable direction that things are going, not just for bookstores, but for a LOT of other types of retail store. If you're a retail bookstore these days and you can't answer the question "What do you offer that Amazon doesn't/can't?" then you're probably in trouble. And if price-fixing by government mandate is your only hope, you're in a LOT of trouble.
I have to admit that I much prefer the online experience myself. But it's not just the price that attracts me, but the selection. I just bought a pair of great shoes in my weird size online that I could have never in a million years found locally. Similarly, I can find books through Amazon which would never be stocked in any of my local bookstores (which all seem to be 90% Harry-Potter-Twilight and 10% over-priced-coffee-shop these days). But your mileage may vary.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Someone probably thought it was related to e-books, and in a way it probably does.
From reading his article, he makes it seem less of a money issue (at the end of the day, it is), but more of one for increasing the amount of culture created by these small books stores. He cites Germany that has book prices fixed and how much goes on in the stores at a cultural level with spectacular events, readings, people paying just to partake in the activities. He then goes into how in the US, this is very rare and he feels it's mostly being there are no small book stores for people to have these events.
My opinion is of course, he's wrong. I think it's the culture that wants to do these things, not the fact that small book stores are around. Nothing in the United States is stopping people from putting on their own events like the ones he described in a different venue. The difference is, the two countries just have different tastes in general that aren't tied to the cost of a book and the ability to keep smaller book stores open. I don't completely rule out that more events would probably be available if there were small book stores, just because it would be easier to put them together. I think in general though, if there was a motivated person that wanted to put on a book reading and events like Germany, it would probably get the same response as a smaller bookstore doing the same thing.
He also mentions that it's a problem because the supermarkets that are putting borders out of business only carry a few of the top sellers and that the vast majority of availability of books will be lost. The level of effort to open a book store that carries many different kinds of books is actually very low, if you take into account the internet; Amazon, eBay, your own storefront which could be put together very cheaply with very low operating costs. The super market doesn't have it, the internet will somewhere. You might have to wait a day or two if it is a physical copy.
Moral of the story is, price fixing is price fixing. If you want to delve into the cultural benefits of price fixing books, how about you just organize your own book reading event, advertise by word of mouth, viral, etc, and get the cultural benefits that way. My opinion is there is more cultural benefits to people being able to afford more books to read, then a couple books with the posibility to attend events around that book.
Low-quality genre fiction is nice and all, but it does not fulfill all of a society's needs for literature. Geez, man, get some sense of perspective.
It benefits your local book seller.
Do you think wholesale prices on books is regulated? (If it is you should go into bulk importation of books. In French anyhow, I doubt many phlemish books are published outside Holland.)
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Open Source, Open Markets. It's all about unrestricted access and fewer controls on your things.
It all starts at 0
The German-speaking Cantons all had majorities against the ban. The French-speaking cantons all had majorities [i]in favor[/i] of the ban. Swiss-Germans outnumber everybody else by a wide margin, so they won.
The argument for price-fixing is the same one behind the death of record stores. Remember record stores? Turns out there are a few hits out there that most people buy, and then those interested in music have wider interests, and therefore want a broader catalog to choose from. The record store business model is built on selling those hits and using some of that revenue to pay for the space to hold a broad selection and the expertise to guide customers. Even before the internet was making dents in music sales, the big labels were already running exclusive deals with Walmart and Target, sinking the record store business model. The same thing is going on with books: the competition to worry about isn't the internet; it's the big chains that can serve 80% of the market by distributing a handful of best-sellers, and screw the rest. And it's the publishers themselves, who cut deals with the big chains on their top sellers, and in so doing, contribute to killing off the market for their own books.
And yes, it's protectionism in the same way mandating broadband to rural areas is protectionism.
Price-fixing IP cartels?
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
Shakespeare wasn't exactly high society in his day, maybe you are the one who needs perspective. Meaningful literature is what society considers important over time - LotR's depictions of various creatures have become fairly standard in fantasy yet at the time of Tolkien's death the Silmarillion was somewhat rushed to get it out while there was still a market for it.
A fair amount of Baen's stuff does make one think about the rights and duties one has to society, the Honor Harrington series for instance compares many different forms of government and discusses ways to ensure the society remains true to its founding beliefs. It examines polygamy in a modern society, the risks stemming from a perpetual underclass, etc. Tom Krautman pretty much beats you over the head with the ills of "transnational progressives." Eric Flint's Ring of Fire/1632 universe heavily examines the effects of grand politics on the average person.
Most SciFi races are archetypes that allow us to examine social behavior. In Star Trek you have the Ferengi as the 80's "Greed is Good" view of capitalism, the Klingons the embodiment of an honor bound society, the Romulans as the paranoid closed society, the Borg as the end result of utilitarianism, Cardasians as racial supremacists, Dominion as a caste based society ruled by a formerly abused underclass.
Let BuyNLarge have the exclusive to the Oprah / Today garbage du jour; that will leave talented authors to sell directly to the folks whom aren't unintentionally auditioning for a walk-on part in Idiocracy.
The recent Dodd-Frank rules have not been fully implemented but if the numbers are to be believed they are close two twenty two MILLION hours of time required to comply
Now there's an alarmist, meaningless, out-of-context number if ever there was one.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
there are so many regulations that complying with them all is an undue burden on business.
That's what the guy in the penthouse bringing down millions per year in salary and stock options says, but I, for one, don't believe a fucking word of it.
Now go add in all the tax laws,
How are you to fund government without taxes? Or are you an anarchist?
all the environmental regulations you listed,
Look here, boy, that's a sore spot with me. I grew up in Cahokia, IL a couple miles south of the Monsanto plant in Sauget. Before environmental regs, you had to roll the windows up driving past, even in 100 degree heat and no AC because the air BURNED YOUR LUNGS. Rivers caught fire back then. You ignorant kids have no fucking clue how bad the environment was before the regulations.
I didn't see Monsanto going out of business, but drive past there now and you can actualy breathe. It doesn't even stink any more.
the work laws
You mean like the ones this comapny broke? Like OSHA, which if it were in place in 1959 my grandfather wouldn't have fallen down four stories? Son, I hate to break it to you, but you are a damned fool who listens to those who would do you harm in the guise of doing you good. Wake up and smell the sewage.
Free Martian Whores!
And so far, in the US history, it has been the small businesses that have driven the economy and employed the majority of people.
If nothing else, there should at least be exceptions to most of the regulations if you are a business of less than say, 100 people.....
I just have a one person company, to contract myself through...and it sucks the hoops you have to jump through, but you have to do it to :
1. Limit your personal liability
2. Keep the company your working with safe from getting hit by IRS for tax not withheld from 'employee', and for insurance purposes.
3. Keep as much of your hard earned dollars, by writing off every expense you can legally.
So many laws of old and most new ones, just seem almost to target the small businesses for some reason.....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Most disturbing is that 44% actually voted FOR a bill that artificially inflates book prices...
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
But apparently not books exported lol.
You know what all those environmental regulations mean when it comes to the megacorporations that do the polluting?
Exempt. Exempt. Exempt.
Some burden.
You can't -lobby- a country's ENTIRE population...
Let's get Citizen Initiated Referenda all over the World! :-)
(...at least in places where there's a good, effective Bill of Rights
to protect against far Right racism being written into Law.)
Swiss books are REJECTED!
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.