Pirated book trade flourishing in city

Pirated book trade flourishing in city
The Hindu

LAW &ORDER Over the years, the Bangalore police have seized pirated books worth crores of rupees and arrested several people, writes K.V. Subramanya

THE RECENT seizure of pirated books worth Rs. 1 crore by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials has shown that the pirated book trade is flourishing in the city.

Acting on a tip-off, the CCB staff on October 26 arrested three persons on charges of printing and selling some leading English works in violation of the Copyright Act. Two of the arrested were proprietors of two printing presses at Banaswadi.

Among the seized books and wrappers were Suketu Mehta's Maximum City, Einstein's The Life and Times, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Paulo Coelho's Like the Flowing River and Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel and Cat O' Nine Tale.

Over the years, the Bangalore police have seized pirated books worth crores of rupees and arrested several people, including those selling such books on pavements. Investigation revealed that pirated books were being supplied from here to other cities in the country.

A few months ago, the CCB officials arrested three persons and seized from them 50,000 pirated books and printing equipment, together worth Rs.1.25 crore. The accused were allegedly printing and selling books brought out by leading publishing houses such as Macmillan, Random House and Bloomsbury. Many of the seized books were novels by Sidney Sheldon, Paulo Coelho and J.K. Rowling.

In another major haul, the police seized hundreds of books by P.G. Woodhouse, Shobhaa De, J.K. Rowling and Jeffrey Archer and other famous writers from a business establishment in Mahalakshmi Layout.

The book piracy in the city had even forced the London-based The Publishers Association to lodge a complaint with the Bangalore police some years ago. It had complained that a Bangalorean was in possession of 15,000 pirated copies of some "best-sellers" such as The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Spouse by Shobhaa De, Secrets of the Code by Dan Burstein, The King of Torts by John Grisham and Are You Afraid of the Dark by Sidney Sheldon.

The international director of the company, Simon Bill, said in the complaint that pirated books were being supplied from here to Mumbai, Bhopal, Goa and Kochi. Penguin India and Shobhaa De's husband, Dilip K. De, had also lodged separate complaints with the police earlier.

A senior police official says that there is a need for setting up an anti-piracy cell to check piracy of books, software, cassettes and CDs that is rampant in the city. The cell should comprise policemen and also representatives from the industries concerned. All cases relating to the Copyright Act should be entrusted to the cell, he says.