FROM THE HIGH SEAS TO THE BOOKSHELVES: PIRACY IN GUYANA

Sep 16, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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This week the topic of piracy moved seamlessly from the violent type on the high seas to the perpetually contentious area of copyright. Copyright violations are rampant in Guyana. Almost all parents in Guyana purchase photocopied books.
Even the children of some “big ones” in the government are known to have photocopied books in their possession.
These “pirated” books are widely available and they are far cheaper than the copyright-protected originals. When you consider what it would take for a parent to purchase original textbooks, one can understand why parents do not bother too much about copyright protection and go ahead and purchase these pirated texts.
Without the pirated textbooks many parents would not be able to afford the books that their children need for their studies. These days, teachers are preparing “long” booklists with many books, rather than for only a few selected texts, as was the case years ago.
No parent wants to suffer the indignity of their children not having the recommended texts. As such, even books that are unnecessary but which are recommended by teachers are purchased, most often from the many bookshops that sell “pirated” books.
Now it seems as if the government is getting into the act of buying photocopied books. And this would not be the first time. Years ago, it was reported that the Ministry of Education had procured “pirated” books for distribution in schools.
The book distributors and bookstores that sell original copies of the copyright books were obviously upset.
The government has gone a step forward and has actually tendered for books. The tender allows for “pirated” texts to be supplied.
This has led to at least one publisher expressing concern and indicating possible legal action.
But against whom will the action be taken. Can it be taken against the government?
The government may claim that they are only purchasing the books; they are not printing them. The government will claim that they put out a tender and that they got a satisfactory offer and they accepted the offer.
Does this constitute copyright violation? There are those who may feel that it does, while there may be others who will contend that it is the suppliers of the books against whom action has to be taken.
A few weeks ago, a gentleman released a book about his experiences in Guyana. There was no stated publisher.
Many years ago, Eusi Kwayana was taken to court by the PNC for publishing the Dayclean, a newspaper, without registering the publisher and paying the requisite fees.
The laws of Guyana provide that all books or newspapers produced in Guyana must state the name and address of the publisher. This is the law. It would therefore be interesting to see just how those who are likely to supply “pirated” books will comply with this law which states that the name of the publisher must be stated on books produced locally.
They surely cannot put their own names down because this would amount to copyright violation; and they certainly cannot print the names of the copyright publishers because this would amount to a misrepresentation, since they are not producing the books under any licence with the copyright owners or publishers. No government wants to be seen as complicit in breaking the law.
And therefore the government of Guyana should not be purchasing books which do not comply with the legal requirement requiring displaying the name of the publisher.
And certainly no government should be buying books that misrepresent the name of the publishers.
This, of course, does not solve the problem of how to ensure that the students are supplied with affordable books. The cost of buying original texts is prohibitive.
The average textbook costs about $4,000 for an original copy. Now when a parent has three children in school and has to, on average, purchase twenty textbooks for each child, it means that parent has to find $240,000 each year for textbooks. This is clearly out of the reach of 99% of the parents in Guyana.
And it will be clearly out of the reach of the government which has to supply textbooks free of cost to thousands of children each year. The solution should not have to involve the government procuring pirated textbooks that are in violation of the law.
There is, however, no reason why the government cannot enter into a deal with the publishers for a reduced cost that is competitive with the cost of the pirated texts.
If the publishers are keen on putting an end to pirated books, they should see the wisdom of offering the government a special deal by selling the government books at a reduced cost. Are they willing to do so?

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