VietNamNet Bridge – The book market in northern Vietnam, especially Hanoi, has been out of control for a long time. The authorities have made raids and seized tons of pirated books. Over a week ago, Hanoi police stormed a very big pirated book ‘warehouse’ in Hanoi, seizing tens of thousands of books.
The biggest victims of piracy are HCM City-based publishers like Tre, Phuong Nam and particularly First News – Tri Viet. It is said that “only good books are pirated” and First News – Tri Viet is the only publisher that won the “Vietnamese high quality product” title 2011.

First News – Tri Viet is among the first Vietnamese publishers that join the Bern Convention in 1994. It currently holds copyright of over 600 world famous books in Vietnam. However, its great effort to buy copyright of the world’s best-selling books to serve local readers has been stolen by piracy. More than 100 book titles of First New Tri Viet have been pirated.

The lifespan of authentic books is being shortened. Within several days after a good book is published, pirated books will be rampant in the market, at dirt prices. Pirated books are often published at high volumes. Piracy in the book market is now red alarmed.
The common thing of faked books is they are exactly the same with the authentic books, but the quality of paper and printing is poor.

There are a dozen of “centers of piracy” in Hanoi and they work publicly. These “publishers” equip modern machines to print pirated books in large volumes, in short period of time. Pirated books are transported to many northern provinces like Yen Bai, Thai Nguyen, Thanh Hoa, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh.

Notably, pirated books are sold publicly at bookstores. Piracy has not only “killed” creativeness and publishers but also harmed Vietnam’s prestige. Foreign publishers, because of piracy, are afraid to cooperate with Vietnamese partners. Representatives of many foreign publishing houses said perhaps only Vietnam punishes producers of pirated books and faked goods by imposing administrative fines.

Minh Tue