[Wikipedia-l] Re: Copyright question

[Ray Saintonge]

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