Author Topic: Book prices  (Read 7477 times)

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Offline Maik

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Book prices
« on: Tuesday, 04 February, 2014 @ 20:45:25 »
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Austerity policies in Greece have a new enemy — but it's one which prefers intellectual debate to angry street demonstrations.

Leading Greek writers and publishers gathered at a bookstore in central Athens on Tuesday to express their opposition to the proposed lifting of price controls on books sold in the economically depressed country.

International rescue creditors are pressing for sweeping market deregulation that includes major changes to the sale of everything from bread to baby formula.

Critics from the publishing world say deregulation would hand market control over to chain stores, kill off small bookshop owners, and threaten publication of quality books in Greek — and ultimately, the country's national heritage.

Greek literary tradition traces its history back to Homer's epics, composed about 2,800 years ago, and the country prides itself on the poetry of C.P. Cavafy, and Nobel Prize laureates George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis — although prose writers have made less of an international impact.

In Greece, a floor is set for the price of books — whether sold in bookshops or online — to help small domestic businesses. The practice, similar to ones also adopted in France, Italy and Germany, aims to keep foreign publishing multinationals from cutting prices aggressively and driving small Greek publishers and independent booksellers out of business.
http://www.startribune.com/world/243517511.html