Thursday, July 24, 2014

Publishing piracy in the Philippines


The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has urged Filipino students to stop illegally copying their textbooks. This is part of a nationwide education campaign to reinforce public awareness of the IP code and copyright rules.
 
The 2014 school year has just started. In various cities there are various photocopy shops which can be used to reproduce books and other printed course materials for students. IPOPHL said that although awareness of copyright was high in the country it is limited to DVD and CD piracy and not related to books. Data from a market survey was cited indicating that 46% of photocopy shops in Metro Manila will copy entire books on request. Most are located in or near educational campuses. In May 2014 the National Bureau of Investigation conducted raids against 3 shops at UP Shopping Center in  Quezon City; Nayumi Copy Center in Manila and Express Copy Shop in Pasay City on behalf of a local publisher, Rex Books.
 
Textbook piracy is always a controversial subject with student budgets cited as a justification. But large scale commercial copying by copy shops clearly remains a commercial IP crime.

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