Fighting book piracy

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.