Thread: You must be joking?

It not because of political correctness, it's all about the money. The French have been pushing this for more than a decade.

Port could become, Trop
And you sir? would you like some more Trop?

Sherry could become, Sherril. :eek:

Al

I saw an article in the QLD Sunday Mail that mentioned how some froggie wine makers are coming over here to learn how wine is made. Apparently they have held onto "the traditional ways" for too long and they realise that Australian wines are a major threat. This BS is a covert way of trying to oust aussie wines from Europe!!

Al, this isn't PC, it's the sort of ######## that have closet lefties like me snarling. This is all about business protecting, not the product, not the consumers, not even the ####ing profits, but the share prices. Yes, the French and their fears about traditional names might have started this as some sort of quasi-PC exercise, but by extending it to protect our own regional names shows this agreement to another one of the Howard government's decisions designed to protect share prices.

Hmm, overly cynical of me? Perhaps. Arr stuffit. PROBABLY I guess I'm someone who sees the irreplaceable place that the share market has in our global economies but who dislikes and fears the immorality required of modern business. No, that isn't a leftist philosophy - highly respected and successful businessmen have written at length about how a company can only protect its shareholders if it acts immorally. The economic system we live with now will eventually destroy itself, as every other immoral or corrupt system has in the past. What'll replace it? I don't know, but I sincerely hope that it isn't a copy of communism. Do modern governments have the strength or wisdom to take the best of the capitalist system and the best of marxism and the best of the other 'isms'? Of course not, but maybe someone will try and hopefully before the huge crash that usually precedes system change. Remember, we are now talking a global economy and hence a global crash - it'll hurt.

Now, for the ultimate in cynicism, but a 'truism' that is yet to be disproved. The best form of government is a benign dictatorship. A dictatorship because the bod in charge isn't worried about re-election, benign because he is interested in the good of his country.

Fuggit. Al for King. Long live King Al ... but only if he brings back his Steptoe avatar

Richard

Originally Posted by Daddles

Fuggit. Al for King. Long live King Al ... but only if he brings back his Steptoe avatar

Richard

Desperate for a greenie from Al by any chance Daddles?:confused:

I reckon it sucks, port is port and sherry is sherry, but it is not just Johnnie screwing us over on names which bright spark changed Spencer Street Station to Southern Cross Station not to mention the Mulgrave becoming the Monash Freeway. It's some hidden agenda to convince those of us struggling to keep up with name changes that we are going senile.

John

While you're in the mood Richard,

Have a think about the Copyright legal charades.

Authors make B-all unless they are lucky enough to hit a couple of buttons at the right time.

But the publishers are a different matter,
They make money even if the creators don't.
They keep making money even after the author dies.
They keep making money after the authors copyright expires
but will nail anyone who infringes the publishers copyright.

The publishers established a marketing system with remainders which effectively excludes self publishers.

Copyright as it is protects big business (who only lobbies for authors copyrights as a facade to protect their businesses)

Hmm, I wonder whether place names in Australia that are the same as European ones will have to Change?

Dunno that I'd want to be a publisher Bob. They lose on most of their books - it's the success stories that support all the others and most first time authors will never earn their advance. It's not the publishers I'm cranky with, the ones that deal with a real author and publish him, its the ones who wait for copyright to expire and then make all the money with reprints.

One of the wonderful things about the free trade agreements and their predecessors that this government (yes, this one) have signed, has to do with books. Ever noticed how many shops sell new books at greatly reduced prices? Huge arrays of books way below the normal price? Damn near all of these are remaindered items from America. We have become the dumping ground for books that didn't sell in America and you know what? The author, the bod who wrote those books, gets NOTHING for every one of those cut price books you buy. This was highly restricted prior to Howard's govt - an early decision removed the barrier. We are now a dumping ground and local publishers have closed as a result, local publishers have reduced lists as a result, and local authors have fewer chances of being published as a result. Yes, by freeing up the market, some businessmen made money but YOU see far fewer Australian authors in the shops.

And another interesting factoid. Books in America are judged largely on their performance in New York. Were you aware that the average time a book has to start selling on a New York book store's shelves before being pulled and remainded is thirty MINUTES :eek: The books are then pulled ... and possibly shipped here for people to buy cheap.

It's no bloody wonder few people, either authors or further up the chain, make any money. There aren't many rich publishers and damned fewer rich authors.

We lost another Australian company recently. Lothian. The last, family owned Australian publisher. Last year, they decided to try an Australian Horror series - four books to be published each year. However, they were bought out by Time Warner at Christmas. That new series survived. However, TW sold them to another international company a few months ago. That horror series was axed and the editor, a very experienced and respected editor, was sacked with NO notice (literally, she was working on the series in the morning, gone from the office in the afternoon). The horror series itself was axed because 'there weren't enough pre-published orders' - the series was yet to be advertised in anyway, the concept hadn't even been shown to the shops, yet it was axed for lack of sales. Guess someone in America just didn't want it ... or is that me being cynical.

Incidentally, one of my novels made the final 12 out of which 4 were chosen for that series. But the chances of any of my novels being published in Australia are miniscule - the market here is tiny and full of 'literary fiction'.

Back in the 'bad old days' when local artists of all types had a bit of protection, there was a chance for Australians of all arts and genres to be published. However, global marketing theories have removed that protection and the local publishers are now all part of international conglomerates. This makes business sense, but it also means that Australians are forced to go overseas to get published/recorded/whatever. For me, this means America. I still pitch to the UK, but that's a closed shop - seriously, they don't want to know about anyone from outside the Old Dart. The yanks are a bit better, but anything written in Australian is foreign - they like it written in American and I don't speak American. Nor do they like foreign settings. Has anyone else noticed how Matthew Reilly writes in American and all his novels are now set in America? He's a Sydneysider ... well, he was originally.

Dammit, now I have to have a large rum before going to bed

Richard

Originally Posted by

Hmm, I wonder whether place names in Australia that are the same as European ones will have to Change?

Yes, we'll have to stick au at the end of each place. Perth_au etc.

Stuff the au, just add the suffix ",eh" to everything and anything Aussie.

"Want a glass of port,eh? Came all the way from Perth,eh?"

The northern states are already more than halfway there...

to Bloody right eh,??

WA would then have their own language but.
(If they still say that there, used to years ago).

Originally Posted by Daddles

Dammit, now I have to have a large rum before going to bed

Richard

Better make that a bourbon if you want to sell your books in the States...

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Stuff the au, just add the suffix ",eh" to everything and anything Aussie.

"Want a glass of port,eh? Came all the way from Perth,eh?"

The northern states are already more than halfway there...

This too must stop. Canadians have been saying 'eh' for longer, and demand that you vile pig dogs remove it from your vocabulary immediately.

I am pretty riled up about this Euro trash nonsense. Agreeing to their silly restriction on the use of adjectives only encourages the idea that regions are suddenly trade marks. It's like Australia demanding that everyone else remove the word 'south' from their lexicon.

As a matter of fact, that's not a bad idea. We should demand they abolish the monicker "The south of France".