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Injunction stalls contract for pirated text books

Sep 27, 2012 News

Now that a High Court has prohibited the publication and distribution of “pirated” school textbooks, Government has halted a contract that was previously issued for the provision of such material.
The publishing house awarded the contract to provide the books through the tender process was also served with an injunction.
Earlier this month, five companies tendered bids worth millions of dollars for the procurement of the pirated books. These included Giftland Office Max, F&H Printing Establishment, Pavnic Press, Sheik Hassan Printery and Metro Office and Computer Centre; the contract winner which placed the lowest bid of $103,671,162.
On Tuesday, Attorney-at-law Andrew Pollard, on behalf of the British Publishers’ Association, filed an injunction in the High Court stopping all local publishing houses from printing and selling the pirated textbooks. The orders were served on the respective publishing houses yesterday and they are expected to appear in court today.
Pollard said that extensive complaints were made to former Education Minister Shaik Baksh who promised to take action against the illegal act. The Minister never fulfilled his promises, Pollard claimed. That forced the copyright company to move to the court this time around.
Current Education Minister Priya Manickchand, confirmed yesterday that until the determination of the court order, the publication of the pirated books will be delayed. She explained that following the injunction, the particular stores have also ceased the provision of the said school books.
Prior to the injunction being filed, President Donald Ramotar had said that the Government was rethinking its approach to acquiring the necessary school texts since Ministry officials met with several British diplomats from the British High Commission to discuss the issue of the pirated books. He said he was unable to go into details on the matter, but it was being addressed.
Ramotar’s comment on the matter had come after the London-based body that represents publishers worldwide, blasted Guyana’s decision to buy pirated textbooks. It described the move as illegal.
The British Publishers’ Association is an umbrella body of United Kingdom publishers whose members include large publishing houses such as Nelson Thornes Ltd., Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Macmillan Ltd. and Pearson Education Ltd. They are the holders of copyright in an extensive number intellectual works.
The foreign publishing houses called their move to the High Court an act to protect and safeguard their intellectual property rights.

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