Will the digitalisation of the book market result in loss of culture?

Book author, physicist and TV moderator Ranga Yogeshwar explained during an almost 2-hour presentation in front of Düsseldorf's state parliament the problems of the  new "book sector" but also provided useful ideas on how to solve them.

It is obvious with Yogeshwar: He puts his heart and soul into this entire ebook thing. And since he became an online book distributor himself with his new company epedio, we can count him as one of the experts in the ebook area. Sufficient grounds for the Committee on Culture in NRW to invite him as guest speaker on the topic "Will digitalising the book market result in loss of culture?" This seems to be the right decision since the physicist claims to be honestly interested in "preserving our book culture".

 

From 0.5 to 100 in only a few years

In 2010, the percentage of ebooks on the German market was only at 0.5 per cent which represented sales of 21.2 million Euros. We're facing the danger that politics are missing the right point in time to tackle the existing problems. It seems that this topic does not play a major role yet. Even though it urgently requires discussion. What hardly anyone seems to realise is the fact that

a company such as Amazon operates out of Luxemburg. And for good reasons: At the turn of last year, our neighbouring country lowered their GST for ebooks from 15% to 3%. According to Yogeshwar a clear attempt to undermine book price-fixing. Apple is doing similar things in its iTunes Store. The only solution for this phenomenon might be a cross-border book price-fixing for ebooks that is adjusted according to the destination country's GST.

 

Ebook infrastructure controlled by the US American market

Actually, one major problem regarding the whole thing is that the majority of our ebook infrastructure is controlled by the US American market. And thus "neither in our political, judicial nor ethical control" says Yogeshwar. A situation that might take its revenge in the years to come. Amazon, Google or Apple want to become publishers too and they buy the rights directly from authors. Of course under different terms and without giving authors or the original publishers the right to actively participate. What's left behind is the "value" the book and the basis for authors and independent publishers to be able to survive. What follows is an insidious loss of culture through the loss of the independent publishing scene.

 

Bookshops are the underdogs

Dark clouds are looming for booksellers as well. The almost 4,900 bookshops in Germany are substantially threatened by the digital ebook market since they cannot offer ebooks yet. They would be another big underdog of the development. A voucher system could counteract this scenario as it would allow bookshops to sell ebooks. In this way, the customer could continue to decide "on site" whether he wants to buy the printed or the digital version.

 

That the reader of an ebook will be tied to the respective reader upon buying the book which may lead to problems with data security, shall only be mentioned for the sake of completeness here. A challenge that politicians are aware of. Yet we may be facing the fact that nothing will change in the short term. Mandatory transparency regulations and the security that readers' data may not be used by the provider is something that will continue to remain wishful thinking in future.

 

Current data shows that the development of the ebook market cannot be stopped. In Great Britain, more than one million e-readers and tablets were sold for Christmas 2011. The ebook is really going to arrive. If and how consumers will deal with it also lies in the hands of our politicians now. The challenges it entails should be obvious to the NRW state parliament now.