Stricter punishment, higher awareness key to the fight against counterfeit books: experts

Book fair at Thong Nhat (Unification) Park in Hanoi. Various book fairs are organised throughout the year in Vietnam as a chance for publishers to present new publications while readers can purchase the books at discounted prices. — VNS Photo Doan Tung

Staff from Vietnam News Agency recently took to the streets to find counterfeit books being sold.

Some shops around the areas famed for selling books in the capital were offering publications at heavily reduced prices.

In some cases, costs were marked up to 60 per cent lower than usual.

Most of the cheap deals were for reference books, literature, fiction and comics.

A student of the National Economics University said she still bought them in Hanoi’s Dong Da District because they were cheap.

Although the quality of paper and ink were poor, she said she still purchased them because as a student the prices were more suitable.

Counterfeit books are not only sold in shops but also online.

A quick web search discovered the entire Harry Potter collection was being sold for as little as VND350,000 or US $15.

Figures show the authorities have seized more than half a million fake books since 2010 countrywide.

Chairman of the Member Council of Viet Nam Education Publishing House Nguyen Duc Thai said books used in the classroom were copied the most.

Violators were found to usually choose English books because that type attracted more readers so it brought them higher profits, he said.

Director of Thai Ha Books Joint Stock Company Nguyen Manh Hung said there were many ways to produce counterfeit books. Violators could publish a book without copyright or share e-version of a book for free via the internet.

The inquiry by VNA discovered counterfeit books blatantly sold in many of Hanoi’s ‘book streets’.

Similar violations were also found in HCM City.

Nguyen Van Phuoc, director of Trí Việt First News Publishing Co Ltd said manufacturing and selling counterfeit books would cause serious harm to publishing companies around the country.

Sophisticated tricks

Nguyen Ngoc Bao, deputy head of Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution under the Ministry of Information and Communications said printing and distributing counterfeit books was a sophisticated process.

Many are printed and distributed quickly because of modern techniques with those responsible operating in the suburbs.

This also put the counterfeiters out of the spotlight from the authorities as well as many choosing to print in the evening and during weekends or holidays, when officials were not working, he said.

And, he added, in many cases this was a ‘family run business’ with relatives of counterfeiters being used to transport the books into town because they were more trustworthy.

In some cases, they were using a network of staff to market the product and approach book shops offering good deals.

Sanction not strong enough

Nguyen Dang Quang, former deputy director of the Viet Nam Education Publishing House said authorised agencies had dealt with numerous violations in the past.

“But the sanctions are not strong enough to deter violations,” he said.

Quang said the penalties were currently handled under the Decree 159/2013/NĐ-CP. Under the decree, although an individual or organisation illegally print thousands of counterfeit books, they would only receive a maximum fine of VND30 million (US$1,288).

Bao, deputy head of the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution pointed out another reason was that the number of inspection staff was very few in every locality.

Additionally, poor co-operation among authorised agencies including police, watchdogs, customs and publishing houses added to the problems, he added.

Solutions

Quang recommended agencies amend laws and regulations to increase fines to act as a stronger deterrent.

Lawyer Vu Hong Yen, of Rouse Legal Viet Nam Co Ltd, said Vietnam was still on the list of countries that need to monitor the enforcement of intellectual property rights. The counterfeit books were still on the market because of limited public awareness of the copyrights.

Yen suggested those in power co-operate to raise the public awareness of the issue.

In response to the situation, Bao said the agency would re-check and then compile a tighter set of rules to fix the situation.

Bao added the department would raise co-operation to better deal with the violations in the future.

“Lastly, the most effective solution is believed that each reader should boycott counterfeit books to save both authentic books and the national publishing sector,” he said.

VNS