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Kenya: Publishers And Authors Lose Millions to Piracy
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Business Daily (Nairobi)
23 April 2008
Posted to the web 23 April 2008
Mwenda Wa Micheni
As the rest of the world celebrates gains in the publishing industry- only possible where there is respect and reward for copyright owners- Kenyan publishers and authors have little to sing about.
Organised by Unesco, the celebrations of the written word seek to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.
The copyright day is marked annually every April 23, a day considered symbolic for world literature. This is because, it is on this date and in the year 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon a French novelist, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov a Russian prose stylist, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia where on 23 April, Saint George's Day, a rose is traditionally given as a gift for each book sold.
While impacting on the lives of readers, writers expect a reward for their sweat.
Ordinarily, the Copyright law secures exclusive rights for the creator of a creative effort. This means that the author enjoys right to control who can make copies, or make works derived from the original work.
The principal is simple: If you create a work of art, you get to control who can make copies of it and how they make copies, with some exceptions.
You can also sell or license this right, or, if you do the work for somebody who hired you to do it, they buy this right in advance. This is how copyright works.
The model was reached in appreciation of the fact that intellectual property is the cornerstone of the creative and media industries and is therefore the only way by which creators can be remunerated for their efforts. Increasingly, the world is embracing intellectual property as wealth and is advocating for respect of copyright. But technological advancements have been a great challenge for those fighting piracy.
Everyday, several downloads are done on the Internet with the culprits not paying a cent; several books photocopied and reproduced for sale by unscrupulous booksellers and allies. Though there is still little public documentation of how much the Kenyan publishing industry loses to pirates, going by what has been documented, Kenya could be losing several millions annually.
By 2000- which is the year one of the latest surveys on book piracy was done in Kenya- it was estimated that for each textbook title that was pirated, over Sh8 million was lost annually.
Most of the culprits are booksellers, though printers are also involved to a certain extent.
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By 2000, the publishing industry in Kenya had a yearly turnover of Sh2 billion. As these levels of piracy go on, the government and Kopiken-a society that collects fees on behalf of the book industry- have not done much to curb the vice.
Recently, East African Educational Publishers organised a swoop that led to the arrest of three pirates in Nairobi as others fled. Other publishers in collaboration with legal authorities have arrested several suspects; cases are still pending in court.
Increase in piracy has stifled creativity in the book industry with many writers not seeing the need to write because at the end of the day, they will not earn royalties from their works. This has left the industry stagnant.
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