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Illegally-printed book flood Hanoi
  • By Nam Hang | dtinews.vn | November 17, 2012 06:03 AM

The flood of illegally-printed books available in the capital was discussed at a conference held by the Hanoi Market Watch on November 15.

Fake books have seriously affected the sale of original editions

Book markets in Lang, Nguyen Trai, Cau Giay and Pham Van Dong streets have offered discount of 10-50%. Many bookstores in Dinh Le and Nguyen Xi streets sell both illegally-printed and genuine editions. Whenever a new book is published, it is copied by other publishers for printing, despite the obvious copyright violations.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen Manh Hung, Director of Thaihabooks, said print prices for fake books are often higher than genuine editions so traders can offer discount of 40-50% to attract customers. However, many of the fake books contain mistakes, Mr. Hung said, citing a book named “Sống như Tiểu Cường” (Live like Tieu Cuong) as a typical example. After being illegally-printed, the book was renamed “Sống Tiểu Cường” (Live Tieu Cuong), he said.

Another example included an atlas published by the Education Publishing House, which included wrong names for places, misspelling or even non-existent localities.

Fake books have seriously affected the sale of original editions, therefore, in many cases, bookstores have had to halt the publication or change their book covers, Mr. Hung noted.

He, however, raised concerns that no specific agency among the Ministry of Public Security, Publishing Department, the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, Copyright Office of Vietnam or Market Surveillance Agency had been assigned to take responsibility for dealing with illegal-printing activities.

Loopholes

Under the current regulations, printing companies only need a business registration to operate; meanwhile, agencies which license them are not responsible for supervising their operations. This has created a chance for illegally-printed books to flood the market.

The country currently has 1,500 industrial printing businesses, but only a third are managed under the Publication Law and Decree 105 issued by the Government.

At the conference, Pham Trung Thong, Head of the Printing Management Division under the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications’ Publishing Department, admitted that illegal printing had been on the rise despite efforts to stop the trend.

The situation has been blamed on weak co-operation between agencies and weak sanctions. The highest fine for this kind of violation is currently just VND40 million (USD1,900); with a maximum punishment of a one-year jail term.

No official statistics about the monthly sales of fake books are published, but traders are earning big profits from this kind of business. Dr. Nguyen Dang Quang, former Deputy Director of the Education Publishing House, said publishers had to protect themselves by using anti-counterfeit stamps which was considered the most effective measure to deal with the problem.

Leaders from the Hanoi Market Watch said that from now until the year end, they would set up many taskforces to tighten control over book printing and sales.

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