Richard Grevers wrote:
It certainly shouldn't be a problem in New Zealand. A year or two ago we were heading towards such a relaxed copyright law (academic institutions were to be allowed to copy quite freely) that International textbook publishers were threatening to make their books unavailable in New Zealand. I've never actually heard whether that law change was defeated.
Inceidentally (and heading OT), many books published in Britain in the middle of last century carried the rider "for Copyright reasons this edition may not be sold in the US and Canada". Does anyone know thether this was because there were separate territorial publishing deals, or because of lower legal protection in US/Canada?
A lot of that did have to do with publishing deals. At that time United States copyright law was linked to a requirement that if any more than 10,000 copies of a book were to be distributed in the United States they had to be printed there. To deal with this Penguin set up a printing plant in Baltimore. In North America publishers have often thought of the continent as one big playground, which explains why Canada is often included in these. Canada has tended to give special protection to distribution arrangements that give companies who can't make a living by publishing their own books a chance to prosper from middlemen's commissions. This gets involved in some sensitive issues in Canada. Cultural domination is a consideration for many Canadians. New Zealanders at least have the protection of a significant expanse of sea between themselves and Australia.
Eclecticology