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NEW DELHI, June 6

HAVE you bought Harry Potter for Rs 50 or a medical college text for less than Rs 200 off the streets of your city? Then you are as responsible for robbing the exchequer of over Rs 100 crore as the printers of these pirated versions, says the Federation of Publishers' and Booksellers' Associations in India (FPBAI).

Besides clocking an annual loss of over Rs 3,000 crore due to piracy, the Rs 7,000-crore publishing industry points out that the country's economy too suffers, as these fly-by-night operators do not pay the 40 per cent corporate tax due to it.

The Federation launched a campaign against piracy 22 months ago at the World Book Fair 2000, and has been trying to further the cause in terms of awareness and hard-core raids against offenders. According to it, so far, 100 persons have been arrested for committing the offence, more than 1,30,000 pirated books seized and 50 reproduction equipment confiscated.

However, this is a small success considering that the investment in book piracy is so high and widespread that the publishing industry itself is astounded by the figures.

Says Dr N. Subrahmanyam, Managing Director, Tata McGraw-Hill and Chairman of the Anti-Piracy Committee, "The industry was alarmed after the recent raids at the level of investment put in by the pirates. For instance, just a second-hand imported refurbished off-set machine could cost Rs 60 lakh and there are other infrastructure costs in running the operation. This clearly shows how high the margins in book piracy are.''

Mr Sukumar Das, President of FPBAI, compared piracy to stealing from another. He revealed that it was being done in every segment including fiction, non-fiction, textbooks or technical and scientific books.

However, attorney Mr Akash Chittranshi, who has specialised in the field of intellectual property and copyright, pointed out that since the piracy drive began not more than five people have been prosecuted, giving the campaign hardly any teeth. He revealed that pirates only choose the top best selling products of publishing companies and rake in huge profits as they do not pay royalty, distribution costs or for product promotion. Their manufacturing and distributing costs are also low as all transactions take place on the telephone and tainted money exchanges hands.

Mr Chittranshi bemoaned the lack of awareness about copyright laws within enforcement agencies and the laxity in taking action. He also found ignorance about the law within the larger printing, publishing and retailing community. According to him a survey in the year 2000 disclosed that 85 of the 110 retailers in the Delhi markets were selling pirated books.

There seems to also be a serious concern about piracy in the international publishing community after globalisation and that seems to have activated the anti-piracy campaign further. Foreign publishers obviously eye the large volumes of books India needs with a 30-million user base, including 20 million students.

In fact, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), that represents the global copyright industry, estimates Indian publishing losses due to piracy this year at $40 million, only in relation to international publishers in India. A loss they and their Indian counterparts would like to plug as soon as possible.

However, many consumers feel that publishers would win half the battle if they brought down book prices and catered to the realities of a price-sensitive market.

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