Public policies and government interventions in the book publishing industry

Purpose – The purpose is to review public policies and government interventions in the book publishing industry, a sector where public policies have blossomed. The paper concentrates on five major issues: intellectual property rights and issue of infringements (piracy), the debate about the fixed price of books (vs free market) or the agency versus wholesale models, VAT discrimination between printed books and e-books, the role institutions like libraries and registration authorities, and competition issues. Design/methodology/approach – This article is based on an extensive set of research initiated by the EC JRC IPTS on the “Statistical, ecosystems and competitiveness analysis of the Media and Content Industries”. The research implied an extensive review of the literature, meetings with players and validation workshops. This paper focuses more on the analysis of policy documents and position of players. Findings – The paper shows a growing discrepancy between the leading position of the EU publishing in...