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Book piracy rampant in Yogyakarta; publishers lose Rp 10b
Publishers in Yogyakarta claim rampant book piracy in the region has led to annual losses exceeding Rp 10 billion
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ublishers in Yogyakarta claim rampant book piracy in the region has led to annual losses exceeding Rp 10 billion.
"We are aware of *piracy* practices but we can do nothing to prevent them" said Apri Dhian, cooperation and promotional division coordinator of the Association of Indonesian Publishers' (Ikapi) of Yogyakarta, in Tuesday.
Dhian blamed the practices partly on weak law enforcement, saying that book piracy cases in the province had never been handled thoroughly.
Filing legal suits were likely to cost publishers a huge sum of money.
"What we can do is just expect the authorities to pay more attention to book piracy cases," Apri said.
Book piracy, Apri said, is mostly done by copying the original books or reprinting the books without the publishers' permission.
The copied version or the illegally printed ones are made in such a way that they look original and sell for much less.
"Customers sometimes can even make an order for copied version of the original books that they can not find in the seller's shelf," said Apri, who is also the marketing manager of Jalasutra publisher.
He said pirates mainly target best-sellers, mostly books published in response to current and controversial events, like Membongkar Gurita Cikeas, which was published in response to the bailout scandal implicating Century Bank.
Other examples were books on religion following the devastating Aceh tsunami and the Yogyakarta earthquake.
"Books like that are illegally sold on the market. The number could be doubled compared to the legal versions," Apri said.
Ikapi Yogyakarta's treasurer Listiyanto said pirates usually worked in a network and operated mostly in second-class book markets or book stores with a limited network.
"Large-scale book stores are assured to be free from such practices."
He added that preventive efforts had been done by cooperating with the police.
The result, however, was considered unsatisfactory, with the publishers having little input.
Listiyanto said 500 publishers were going to hold a book fair at the Jogja Expo Center (JEC) in Yogyakarta between March 10 and 15, 2010, expected to discuss further strategies on combating piracy."
