Dear Editor,
I read Mr Lloyd Austin’s (continuing) lamentation about “academic piracy” in the photocopying of books. I recall also Freddie Kissoon lengthily addressing this issue a few years back.
The fact is that people opt for photocopying because it is much cheaper and where finance is limited photocopying allows for parts/chapters of books to be copied. This is not unique to Guyana.
Guyana is a third-world country with limited resources. The buyer chooses where to spend his money. Why doesn’t Mr Austin set up state-of-the-art machinery and get in the fray instead of marking time and crying foul?
Mr Austin, have a poll conducted with the end-users and be guided accordingly.
Yours faithfully,
T. Jabour
Editor’s note
The writer seems to have no respect for the law of copyright. It is this attitude and the failure by the authorities to enforce the law that led Mr Eddy Grant to refuse to set up a recording studio in Guyana.
The ultimate solution is to have textbooks printed cheaply in Guyana using newsprint as was done in Jamaica many years ago. A proposal for a similar project in Guyana was made to the Ministry of Education by this newspaper, also years ago, but it was not taken up.