Pirated books are widespread online
Having loved comic books since he was in high school, Mr. Tuan Anh accidentally saw an advertisement for a series of comic books familiar to people aged 8x and 9x on Facebook. When he texted to inquire, he was offered to buy the 1997 edition of the "Ninja Astigmatism" series with the advertisement that the story was new, beautiful, with a complete set of 40 volumes priced at 900,000 VND. After 5 days of waiting, the series was shipped, and he was shocked because the series was printed in poor quality, had misspellings, and was "100% a fake book". "I looked very carefully and refused to buy it because it wasn't of good quality," said Mr. Tuan Anh.
On Facebook, when searching for the keyword buying and selling books, you can easily find many groups with hundreds of thousands of members. In particular, many hot books on the market are advertised by sellers with discounts of 50 - 80% for the reason of "liquidation", handling of inventory...
Many pirated books do not pass quality inspection, have spelling errors, and poor paper and ink quality. But fake books are now sophisticatedly processed, meticulously printed, the paper quality is not much different from real books, and the book cover is colorful and sharp. If you only look at photos online, it will be difficult for readers to distinguish between real and fake.
However, the bargain price is an attractive factor for many readers. Many people excitedly order their favorite books at cheap prices without knowing that they are pirated books. Best-selling books such as "How to Win Friends and Influence People", "Forever Lives", "Harry Potter", "Doraemon"... are widely counterfeited.
With comic books, the different cover editions according to each stage of publication and special editions make the situation of buying and selling used books complicated and unpredictable. When old copies of books have had their covers changed and limited editions are no longer for sale, the fake books mixed in are even more difficult to distinguish. Because, buyers no longer have the official version to compare with.
Many old comic books such as "Dungeon's Taste", "Ninja Astigmatism", "Tokyo Revengers"... are being sold at double or triple the old price with offers like "rare copy, still sealed, good price".
Sharing with Lao Dong, Mr. Khanh Duong - founder of Comicola - said that with the famous series "Hesman", some people sell it for 30 - 40 million VND/set to those who want to collect it. However, the complete set of 159 volumes of "The Brave Hesman" is still scarce, causing its value to increase.
When buying books directly, readers may discover abnormalities in printing quality or book content. However, when buying online, it is not easy to distinguish real books from fake books. Not only that, tracking organizations and individuals selling pirated books online also faces many difficulties due to the anonymity feature of social networks. Not only buyers but also publishers themselves are suffering from the problem of fake and pirated books being sold widely on the internet.
Motivation for long-term development of the publishing industry
At the Conference on implementing publishing and releasing publications in 2024, Master Pham Thi Kim Oanh - Deputy Director of the Copyright Department, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism - pointed out that many people still Buy cheap books even though you know that they may be pirated books, fake books, or pirated books . There are still people chasing profits; Those who exploit and use books in cyberspace are not aware of their responsibilities and obligations regarding copyright.
In addition, sanctions to handle acts of copyright and related rights infringement are still limited and not enough to deter and prevent. Currently, the authorities still mainly impose administrative sanctions on acts of publishing printed publications, pirated duplication, counterfeit printing, unauthorized printing of duplicate copies, and copying works without consent. of the copyright owner, with a fine of 20 - 35 million VND (Decree No. 159/2013 and Decree No. 131/2013).
Mr. Dang Cao Cuong - Head of the Comic Editorial Board of Kim Dong Publishing House, talked with Lao Dong: "Famous book series are still republished and distributed regularly by the publisher, and are well received by readers. Pirated books and unofficial books are widespread on the market, causing harm because they do not generate revenue for the book series, nor do the authors receive benefits. Basically, though, readers are highly conscious. Even the readers themselves are the ones propagating and calling on each other to buy books to support the publisher, which is a very positive signal."
During the propaganda campaign about Vietnam Book Day and Reading Culture 2024, Mr. Nguyen Nguyen - Director of the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution also emphasized the importance of readers promoting reading culture by buying quality books. license. Readers buying real books is "the driving force for the long-term development of the publishing industry".
