APPENDIX 10
Memorandum submitted by the Publishers'
Association
Piracy of all books, indigenous and imported,
is rife in Turkey.
As far as UK books are concerned the sectors
that suffer most are ELT and medical textbooks. The latter are
photocopied and bound on campus for students and probably 80 per
cent of the market is lost to these pirate editions. However the
loss suffered by ELT publishers is greater.
The current size of the ELT textbook market
is approximately £16 million. The market is dominated by
four UK publishers: Oxford University Press, Cambridge University
Press, Pearson and Macmillan/Heinemann, but these publishers estimate
that approximately 50 per cent of this market is supplied by pirate
editions of their books. At certain times and in certain places
this pirate "market share" rises to 90 per cent! The
loss suffered by UK based medical publishers would be approximately
£2 million.
The pirate editions are full colour counterfeits
of the original, produced to a high standard and sold at only
about 10 per cent below the proper selling price. Because the
pirates pay no author royalties or development costs and most
especially because they only print bestsellers during the selling
season, they are able to give the principals and teachers of the
private language market they supply a substantial discount which
they can retain when the books are sold on to the students.
The four UK publishers have all taken a substantial
number of legal actions against pirates, but these actions are
usually against small retailers, it being difficult to obtain
evidence against the pirate "publishers". Tougher penalties
(maximum fine currently about £1,300) and a much more pro-active
police force and public prosecutor would help copyright holders
defend their rights.
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