Piracy nightmare for book dealers

In a small market stall in Nairobi, university student Mildred Wairimu hovers over a photocopy machine.

She is copying a textbook borrowed from a friend. At Sh2 per page, the 100-page volume costs 200 shillings. She would have spent hundreds more had she decided to buy the book.

The way Mildred sees it, such behaviour is not a big deal. But to publishing houses, it is nothing short of a nightmare.

Students interviewed by the Nation say scenes like Mildred’s unfold everyday across Kenya.

“During my first semester, we had to buy a Kiswahili book. Only three people bought it… the rest of us photocopied,” says a second-year student at the University of Nairobi.

Smaller volume

“The smaller the volume, the more you can save… This is because bigger books cost more to copy,” said an accounting student at Job Mark, a private college. “But sometimes, we do not do it because certain books are scarce.”

He estimates that 50 to 60 per cent of his friends duplicate books in their entirety. Others, meanwhile, perceive the number as much higher.

“I think almost all of us did it,” recalls a recent graduate of Kenyatta University.

The unchecked reproduction of books deeply concerns Kenya’s publishing industry. At the 11th Annual Nairobi International Book Fair last week, publishers cited piracy as one of the biggest obstacles facing the book trade.

Efforts to enforce the rules have been met with hostility from schools and businesses.

And as people begin to access and read books online, observers think the problem will only get worse. Novel solutions, it seems, are needed to protect books.

In many ways, these concerns were swept under the carpet of singing and dancing as assistant Education minister Ayiecho Olweny opened the fair.

Schoolchildren crowded the hall, visiting booths, reading comic books and eating snacks. Publishing houses displayed their newest titles and offered special discounts.

But in interviews, exhibitors expressed worries about the health of book trade. Mr Mark Gakono from Longhorn Publishers described the lengths some people go to illegally reproduce books.

“Some of them use real printing presses,” he explained, calling piracy a “nuisance” that needs to be contained.

“I have seen piracy with my own eyes, and it’s not pretty,” said Mr Gabriel Karuri, whose company, Njigua Books, imports books and distributes them in Kenya.

“Because they are so expensive, students photocopy entire books from the first page to the last,” he added.