For the time being at least Guyanese author Maureen Rampertab’s recently launched second book of stories for children, Story Time, is probably safe from the clutches of the predators whose illegal copying and selling of school texts has robbed many an author, publisher and local bookstore of revenues to which they are entitled.
Things, however, could change quickly if – for the sake of argument – Ms Rampertab’s book were to become required reading in the primary school curriculum. Then, there is every likelihood that the pirates might descend upon Ms Rampertab’s book and that in no time at all thousands of illegally reproduced copies will be available for sale in the familiar places; and if the position as articulated by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, on pirated texts remains unchanged, the government itself might be in the market for pirated copies of Ms Rampertab’s storybook – as long as the price and quality are right.
The various private sector umbrella bodies have remained conspicuously quiet in the wake of the HPS’ remarkable revelation (The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry had issued a statement after it had been reported that the government had published an “invitation to tender” for the books in question) even though what he had to say ought to be anathema to private enterprise. Copyright infringement strangles creative initiative and serves as a disincentive to private enterprise, so that the substantive illegality that inheres in book piracy apart, the practice is against the very spirit of legitimate business. This alone ought to be sufficient reason for the private sector bodies to react strongly to what the HPS had to say.
Oddly enough the HPS’ revelation that government was in the market for pirated texts comes as no surprise to those of us who have been following the issue. One recalls, for example, that former Education Minister Shaik Baksh struck a decidedly evasive posture whenever the issue was raised with him. That apart, there is still an unfulfilled promise by the former minister to “check” when a section of the media sought to secure confirmation that the ministry had been distributing pirated texts to schools. What was surprising, however, was the bluntness of the belated admission by Dr Luncheon and the attendant ‘justification’ which authors and publishers, particularly, must have found particularly galling.
Arguably, one of the reasons why the book piracy issue and the attendant comment by the HPS has not made waves in the local business community has to do with the fact that some well-established businesses in the printing and retail sectors have themselves been making a pretty penny out of the practice; more than that the handful of bookstores and publishers’ agents operating in Guyana represent a weak and ineffective lobbying force. We understand too that the attempts at litigation by some booksellers and overseas publishers have been proceeding at a rather ponderous pace.
Still, given the fact that that the HPS’ pronouncement could have implications for the safety of intellectual property way beyond school texts, one would have thought that this was as opportune a time as any for the private sector to draw a line in the sand. After all, text books apart, the local music industry is all but being pirated out of existence. Indeed, the situation there has become so discouraging that local artistes who are mindful of protecting their intellectual property are now frowning openly at having their music released here.
Interestingly enough, while all this has been going on the immediate past chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) has been reported in the media as singing the praises of the country’s investment climate, blissfully unaware, it seems, that increasingly, potential investors and bilateral and multilateral lenders and aid donors are using countries’ records on issues like adherence to copyright law as barometers for determining whether or not they should do business with them. So that if the local private sector wishes to be seen as a standard bearer for overseas investment in Guyana it has to be mindful that its silence on what the HPS had to say is not seen – both at home and abroad – as part of the customary pattern of evasiveness in matters that might give rise to the need to be critical of the political administration.
