Foreign texts off shelves as piracy takes a toll

Low-cost editions of expensive international educational books meant to be sold only in India will soon go off the stands because of the rampant smuggling of the Indian editions to markets abroad and growing piracy in India.

According to publishers of these low-cost editions, both smuggling and piracy could lead to an annual loss of over Rs 250 crore. Education-related books account for about 60 per cent of the Rs 7,000-crore Indian publishing industry, which is growing at 15 per cent a year.

International publishers like Pearson Education and McGraw-Hill are planning not to extend licence agreements with their Indian partners or units to publish low-cost editions in India and will opt for imports instead.

This means Indian management and engineering students will now have to pay nearly 10 times more to buy these books through legal channels.

Leading the list of pirated titles is the classic Marketing and Management by Philip Kotler. The low-cost Indian edition costs Rs 450 while the pirated edition of the book is available for half the price. Buying the book abroad, however, will cost Rs 5,200.

Compilers, a popular computer programming manual by Alfred V Aho, is priced at Rs 425 in the domestic market and sold at pirated rates of Rs 180-210, while the foreign edition costs Rs 4,800.

The Indian edition of Digital Design by M Morris Mano costs Rs 210. The pirated version is available for Rs 75-110 while the imported edition's price is Rs 4,200.

Pirated editions are published by small printing and publishing houses in Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata that flood the market with cheap imitations.

"Pirated books come out without paying any royalty, taxes or organisational expenses, including those in the promotion and marketing of these titles. Such books do not conform to quality standards, resulting in the lowest possible prices and harming the original titles," said Vikesh Dhyani, general manager, marketing, of Pearson Education India.

Royalty alone accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of book publishers' costs. Dhyani added that Indian distributors of these books were exporting them illegally, selling them at double or triple the Indian price.

"We have an anti-piracy committee that conducts raids frequently. But unless there is an overall awareness about piracy among students and teachers, it will not stop," said Michael J Cruz, general manager marketing, Tata McGraw-Hill.