Piracy is now eating into the local book publishing industry

One random midnight, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when an advertisement for books popped up. 

It read, "Stock clearance sale, 50% discount, free delivery!"

The books featured in the advertisement were not old or second-hand; they were new titles from renowned publishers like Prothoma, Baatighar, and University Press Limited (UPL).

The offer seemed quite lucrative, so with a bit of suspicion, I went through the comments section and the reviews, which were mostly positive. But still, I could not be convinced enough to place an order.

Later, I discovered that some Shahbagh footpath book sellers were selling the same books at approximately half, or even lower than the price tag. Having had a brief experience of working with a publishing house, I knew for sure that these publishers could not possibly sell their books for such a low price — there must be a catch.

Photo: Mehedi Hasan

After flipping through some pages, I realised that these books, like those sold by the online seller, were copies. The copies were deceptively good — an average reader will probably struggle to differentiate between an original and a copy, if not comparing side-by-side.

The covers, the texts, the pages — all were similar, almost 90% as good as the original ones. But if you pay close attention, the pages are a bit noisy, the pictures less clear, and the binding is not as good as the original ones.

For years, pirated books in Nilkhet were mostly copies of international titles, especially English self-help books, and some literature from West Bengal writers. Local publishers' new books were rarely pirated — at least, not to this extent.

Flipping through some more books from the same seller at Shahbagh, I found that most of his books are photocopied. "Are these books the original ones?" I asked the seller. "Yes, 100%! I bought these from the publishers," he replied confidently.

However, another seller admitted that those books were indeed the pirated ones.

The unreachable Blackbeard of book piracy

A seller told me that these photocopied books come from a single source. But he refused to disclose the identity of the supplier.

I then approached a different seller as someone who wants to start a business online, so he needs a supplier who will provide these books wholesale to him.

Yet again, I failed to get the details of the publisher. "You may search in Nilkhet yourself and purchase from there," he said.

On my third attempt to find the master of copies, I approached a different seller, as someone who needs a bulk amount of books for distributing prizes in a competition. Needless to say, I failed again.

I went back to the online pages that sold the books, hoping they must have some contact information. The only three pages I found selling those books indeed had their own WhatsApp numbers, but to my disappointment none of the numbers were Bangladeshi —  one was from Germany and another from South Africa.

Anyone can create virtual numbers online from a different country, and create a WhatsApp account with that number, and that is what these sellers have been doing. To avoid getting tracked, they have created WhatsApp accounts with virtual numbers.

"I do not exactly know who is behind the veil, but I am assuming that some influential figures are involved," said an industry insider, who works for a publishing house, requesting anonymity.

Legal action a double-edged sword for publishers

"We do not have an accurate estimation of the annual financial losses, but my guess is it will not be less than a crore, based on the number of bestseller titles from UPL, and the kindergarten books that get copied or otherwise pirated and sold in both digital and printed forms," said Mahrukh Mohiuddin, the managing director of University Publishers Limited (UPL).

But the publishers do not seem to be taking action against the pirates. This might seem a bit counterintuitive since they are facing a financial loss, and they have the law and the writers on their side.

In practice, however, pursuing justice in Bangladesh is a tall order. "I used to work for a different publishing house, and one day I heard that one of our books was being printed in Banglabazar. I sent my marketing manager immediately, a case was filed, and the culprit was caught," said Zafar Ahmad Rashed, the CEO and chief editor of Baatighar.

"The court was in Shakharibazar; my office was in Karwan Bazar. The culprit does not show up in court and the plaintiff goes to one hearing after another, gets a new date, and the cycle goes on," he said.

After all the hassle, they lost hope, and decided not to further pursue legal action. "We then considered it this way: suppose five of our books are pirated. The cost of pursuing legal action would exceed the losses we would incur from the piracy of those five books."

Kaosar Ahammad, Prothoma Prokashan's assistant marketing manager, also thinks the same. "Stopping piracy costs you more than your financial loss from the piracy itself."

"We have taken legal steps several times, whenever we got the news of our publications being illegally reprinted and sold. The police also took action on several occasions, and we filed cases, some of which are still ongoing," said Mahrukh.

She thinks the legal system has some inherent problems, one of which is its lethargy, and taking action against piracy is not quite a sustainable move, both in terms of time and finance. 

"Every now and then, we take initiatives to take the police and raid areas where piracy takes place, but ultimately we are unable to be vigilant on a wider scale. It should be the responsibility of the government agencies," she added.

A threat in the long run

Piracy poses a clear threat to the publishing industry in the long run. If the industry is to sustain, then the publishers and the writers have to sustain. When a book is sold, the shares of revenue go to the author as royalty, the editor, the proofreader, the workers at the press, and the publisher.

But piracy deprives the ones who invested their intellect into making the books.

"The books that are sold the most are also the ones that get pirated the most. Publishers sustain on those books, and when those are pirated, it becomes impossible for them to survive," said the Baatighar CEO Rashed.

Apart from the writers and publishers, Mahrukh also pointed out that the country also loses on tax revenue due to piracy, adding, "we are turning this into a dominant culture, to violate another person's right to their creative and intellectual product."

In reality, many people do not even think of piracy as theft or a legal offence.

The way out

An alliance among publishers can be a great way to deal with cases like piracy and intellectual property theft. But though the Bangladesh Pustok Prokashok o Bikreta Samiti (BAPUS) was supposed to be the official guardian in such cases, in reality, it has failed to deliver on such promises.

"Some BAPUS members themselves engage in illegal reprinting, and there is no screening criteria or penalty that the organisation has so far exercised against any of the violators," alleged Mahrukh, adding that the formation of alternative associations is in the works.

"There is no industry without piracy, even in the US or India, there are pirated books, but the ratio is not as high as Bangladesh," said Prothoma's Kaosar. "Readers need to be more vigilant and avoid falling for counterfeit copies. Publishers, on their part, should educate readers on how to identify authentic books," he added.

The National Book Policy, which was revised in 2014, was well-drafted but never implemented. Mahrukh hopes the new government will revive it. The policy suggests elaborate ways to combat illegal reprinting and book piracy.

"Without true intent and concerted efforts from the government and other relevant stakeholders — the players in the publishing industry, copyright authority, and law enforcement agencies — this problem will never be resolved," said Mahrukh.