The original copy: Oxford University Press launches campaign against piracy

Two people accused of piracy now behind bars.

PESHAWAR: Book piracy has been around since the mid-500s when Columbus first copied a manuscript given to him by St Finnian.

Over centuries, the problem seems to have gotten worse as not only are pirated copies being sold in the open market, but an individual can now scan, copy and paste the entire book online as well. Oxford University Press (OUP) has decided to take matters into its own hands by starting an awareness campaign against piracy in the provincial capital.

According to OUP staff members, it was an injustice that pirated books were openly available in markets as it was not only unfair on the printing press, but also the author as if a book is pirated, the author does not get any royalty.

They said they had received several complaints about mistakes published in OUP books, however, when they checked those books they realised the copies were pirated editions. This caused a concern at the publishing house and led them to contact officials who deal with piracy.

“For the first time in the country’s history, a local court sent two people behind the bars after they were found guilty for stealing ‘intellectual property’,” said the staff, adding Khurram Aziz and Muhammad Saleem were arrested by Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) after a complaint was registered against them for copying OUP books and selling them.

“The first three pages of a recently pirated book were found with 180 mistakes,” they said.

“People call and ask us what is wrong with OUP, what they do not understand is that the books they have were pirated,” said a staff member, adding that the printers and publishers do not violate Intellectual Property Rights.

The staff member said the FIA also raided places in Charsadda, Mardan and Nowshera where a number of pirated books were confiscated and arrests were made.

The staff member said OUP has now launched an awareness campaign and were arranging programmes to tell people about the difference between an original and pirated copy. He believes that once piracy was under control, people would start writing again and this will ultimately lead to lower prices.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2014.