Six foreign publishers, through local book distribution company Fahasa, organised a press conference on July 9 to announce the 393 book titles of their’s being illegally printed in Vietnam.

The conference displayed thousands of illegal book copies besides original books for visitors to make comparisons.

The conference displayed thousands of illegal book copies besides original books for visitors to make comparisons. Most of the books (343 book titles) were published by the Quynh Mai Publishing House in cooperation with the Dong Nai Publishing House. The remaining were published by the Culture and Information, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Thanh Nien, Lao Dong, Tre and HCM City General publishing houses.

Most of the violated copyright books are foreign language teaching books. Violators printed copies of lower quality than original versions to sell at low prices.

These book titles were mainly published under the licence granted by a Vietnamese publishing house, which was critcised by foreign publishers as violation of international conventions on copyright protection that Vietnam had joined. They said that this publisher licenced others to publish these books without negotiating with the copyright holder representatives.

Oxford Publishing House’s representative Vo Dai Phuc said that according to statistics of the International Intellectual Property Alliance – IIPA in 2008, copyrights of 90 percent of English teaching books in Vietnam are breached.

VietNamNet/TT