- Title: GERMANY: BOOK FAIR OPENS IN FRANKFURT
- Date: 10th October 1995
- Summary: FRANKFURT, GERMANY (OCTOBER 10) (RTV -ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/SV/ZOOKM EXTERIOR OF BOOK FAIR SITE (3 SHOTS) 0.17 2. SV INT. ZOOM PEOPLE PREPARING PUBLISHERS TRADE STANDS AT FAIR (2 SHOTS) 0.25 3. SV/ZOOM KOGAN /BRITISH TELEVISION PUBLISHER CARLTON/MENSA BOOKS /HARPER COLLINS STAND/PREPARATIONS FOR MARTIN CRUZ SMITH BOOK STAND/QUADRILLION BOOKS (4 SHOTS) 0.58 4. HAS,GV/SV STANDS BEING PREPARED (2 SHOTS) 1.05 5. MCU BOOK LOGO/ZOOM OUT TO OPENING CEREMONY/ GV AUDIENCE (4 SHOTS) 1.17 6. SV MAYOR OF FRANKFURT PETRA ROTH SPEAKING AT OPENING CEREMONY (GERMAN)/ZOOM OUT (2 SHOTS) 1.33 7. CU MAN IN AUDIENCE 1.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 25th October 1995 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: FRANKFURT, GERMANY
- City:
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVA1442LV5CRK9A94YSO2LMJOCVR
- Story Text: German publishers attacked Britain on Tuesday (October 10) for dropping its price-fixing arrangement for books, saying the move could affect booksellers throughout the European Union.
The book fair, in Germany's financial capital Frankfurt, is the world's largest and this year, attracted almost 9,000 publishers from 97 countries.
New records will be set at this year's fair, which runs from October 11 to October 16. The association of book dealers, which organises the fair, said that 93,118 new titles would be exhibited.
Among the highlights will be president of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, Gerry Adams' autobiography, the launch of the first official biography of the Rolling Stones and a new book by famous sex therapist Dr Ruth Westheimer.
Mayor of Frankfurt Petra Roth addressed the fair's opening ceremony.
The chairman of the German Publishers Association, Roland Ulmer, speaking at the opening, was quick to condemn Britain's decision to drop the price-fixing agreement which has provoked a flurry of cut-price books in British stores and supermarkets.
"This decision fills booksellers and publishers in other European Union member countries with the greatest alarm," Roland Ulmer told a news conference.
"Our efforts to uphold price-fixing for books in the EU will be rendered extremely difficult, perhaps indeed superfluous." Publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair expressed alarm at the soaring international price of paper, welcomed moves to stamp out copyright pirates and hailed increased turnover after years of recession.
Ullmer said a 50 percent rise in the price of paper, along with soaring newsprint costs, had also hit the newspaper industry.
He estimated that pirating cost the book, media, film, music and software industries 12.5 billion marks ($8.79 billion) a year and praised former Soviet Republics, south-east Asian countries and China for signing copyright agreements.
Despite an appeal by more than 200 intellectuals, The German Book Trade stood by a controversial decision to award its peace prize to orientalist Annemarie Schimmel.
Critics accuse her of intolerance in showing sympathy for a "death sentence" passed on British author Salman Rushdie in Iran over his novel "The Satanic Verses".
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