Fighting book piracy

As could have been expected, the annual Indonesian Publishers Association book fair, which opened at the Senayan Sports Hall a few days ago, once again put the spotlight on a serious malady which has afflicted members of the association for longer than one can remember.

The disease is called book piracy. So far it has proven to be been incurable, and it is almost literally, bit by bit, eating the flesh off those whom it afflicts. Just how serious this disease is can be gauged from presentations made by representatives of some of this country's leading publishers.

A rough illustration of the situation was provided in a seminar at the fair. According to one of the speakers, Alfons Taryadi of PT Gramedia publishing house, at least 279 book titles published by the association's members are known to have been illegally copied and sold since 1985.

Taryadi estimated that members stand to lose Rp 2 billion (US$817,000) annually if just 10 bestsellers are pirated each year. It's a wonder so many small publishers have been able to survive over the years given the extent of the crime here.

Obviously, this is a situation that in the long term will harm not only book publishers and their legitimate sales outlets, but also the public. Book piracy eats into the earnings of not only publishers and bookstores, but also the royalties of authors, which discourages people from writing. The public could thereby be deprived of works that could -- if they are good books -- contribute to promoting knowledge, intelligence, character and wisdom, since good books enrich their readers.

Of course, all of this has been said before. The relevant question now is, what can be done to overcome the situation?

One option would be to impose heavier penalties for book piracy. As speakers at the recent seminar noted, our courts are inclined to be lenient on counterfeiters, who normally get away with a mere probationary sentence, or with prison sentences of less than a year.

There are, of course, other options. The wind could be taken out of counterfeiters' sails by keeping book prices low. It may be no coincidence that there are considerably less cases of book piracy in countries where books are affordable at official prices. India is one example. This could also be one of the reasons why India, a developing country, has produced such a comparatively high number of world-acclaimed scientists and intellectuals.

It would certainly serve all of us well to look further into the possibilities of lowering prices. Evidently it would not be without cost. For one thing, publishers and printers would have to keep their costs low, meaning they would have to be relieved of some of the tax and other financial burdens they now bear. In the meantime, acts of piracy must be strictly dealt with.

Obviously, achieving all this would need coordinated efforts by all those involved, both in the private and public sector. But it is a goal worth pursuing.