The paradox of book piracy

Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf
Publishers and writers are the sacrificial lambs in this struggle and are on the verge of throwing up arms and shudder in despair at the rate at which book piracy is growing in Harare and elsewhere in the country. The truth that always has been hard to swallow is that through street book vendors, books, especially textbooks, have become cheaper and affordable, albeit the compromised quality. Parents and some schools have found book vendors helpful in saving their tight budgets.

While raids and arrests by the council police may prove the immediate answer, book piracy is advancing at a rate unheard of before.
The only answer left, as it is, seems to be “if you can’t beat them, join them”.

The alarming growth of book piracy now calls for the inclusion of the photocopying industry and street book vendors into the mainstream book sector as a way of launching partnerships in the interest of all stakeholders.

This inclusion must not be interpreted as “legalising book piracy” but rather, the idea is “stop book piracy but viva street book vendors”.
The challenge is how to celebrate and promote book vendors without criminalising them or promoting book piracy.

The blame game must end and proactive measures be taken. In some countries, street or sidewalk vending in general is seen as a small scale business which, if organized, can contribute to the economy.

Taurai (not real name), a book vendor operating a few streets from the Kingstons Bookshop and Stationer, is a father of four children with two of them already at primary school.

As a parent, he wishes to provide quality education for his children but he is stuck in an illegal job.
The future is uncertain.

“I don’t like operating illegally. If I could be given a licence by the city council I would be happy because right now this job is causing me a lot of stress because of the daily raids by council police and other concerned authorities. But there is nothing I can do. I have a family looking up to me at home,” said Taurai.

When the pirated books are confiscated, they are stashed somewhere where Taurai identified as “lost and found” section.
He is then charged a fine, sometimes the fine is charged per book, which takes away all the money that he would have worked for that day.

The situation is worse when some authors of photocopied books visit in the company of uniformed police to confiscate the books and make arrests.
Other authors, he said, just helplessly leave him on the understanding that the economy is hard and therefore he also needs to a make a living.
Asked how he felt for the authors, Taurai said he understood their pain.

“We understand this is illegal. We feel for the authors. Imagine, munhu ane chipo chake (someone who has a gift) and yet not benefiting from his or her gift. It pains.

“But the authors are also crying on the other hand, saying royalties are not coming to them and actually a number have found us as a useful route to reach out to readers,” he said.

Like in any other illegal business, book piracy has an anonymous supplier who own photocopying and binding machines and releases bulk of photocopied books to book vendors at a low price.

Even voluminous textbooks are now being photocopied and bound easily because of technology.
Parents, hit by financial hardships, are lured by the cheap prices and buy the pirated books for their children.

The child’s learning, already at risk due to lack of fees, is further risked by poor visual quality of the print and the missing pages.
As Taurai spoke, one could see how deep the book sector has fallen into the trap of poverty. Yet, there must be an answer, a window of light, somewhere.

“With our experience with parents, we can work with writers and the Council to help us operate legally. All we need is employment,” said Taurai.
His wish was echoed by Godfrey Kanyandura, a father of three, who said book vending is helping him pay rent and feed his family.
“The Council can give us a place where we can operate from,” said Kanyandura.

Should book vendors aspire to be accommodated into the system, educating them on copyright is important.
One vendor who chose to remain anonymous asked, “Why should we be arrested when we reproduce books written and published in Britain for example?”

A large number of Advanced Level textbooks such as Accounts (Frankwood) are written and published abroad and therefore distance, according to the anonymous vendor, meant that these authors and publishers won’t care about the massive photocopying of their books.

Baba Trudy, an enthusiastic book vendor and former Kingstons employee, has a large supply of books displayed strategically on a pavement where parent cannot help but look at one or two of the books which include Western and local novels, and various textbooks.
A few small photocopied school study guides are dotted among the other books but there is an aura of a real “open-air bookshop” around, possibly because of the large number of genuine books which Baba Trudy sales.

Taking himself seriously, Baba Trudy gave his book vending business the name “Educare Book Sales” and his understanding of this business is that he is contributing to the literacy of the country.

“We care . . . We are educating the nation. If only we could be given licences to operate legally and be given stalls, you will understand the role we are playing,” he said.

The law enforcement agents have also come into the book piracy discourse and their viewpoint has always seen to be a damper on the creators.
In her paper titled “Copyright Violations: View from the Police” which she presented at the 2012 ZIBF Indaba Conference Chief Superintended Ever Mlilo said the police follow laws and therefore do not engage in random arrests. She, however, also laid the blame on the book sector which she said was not making books available to readers.

Superintended Mlilo’s paper left writers gasping and seemingly asking themselves if ever the plague will end.
Deemed the largest bookseller in the country, Kingstons has been said to have resorted to selling “bananas” among the books and other stationery.
While figuratively this could be true, Kingstons has actually, as a strategic way to survive under economic constrains, diversified its business to include selling school uniforms and bags.

The answer then to the puzzle surely must be somewhere in the game that’s being played in a certain darkness in different places by different people yet the losers are the same people.
Someday, some light shall be found.