LAHORE, April 23: The US has urged Pakistan to strictly implement copyright laws to control book piracy. Talking to reporters after a function held to observe the World Book and Copyright Day at the Quaid-i-Azam Library on Saturday, American Centre director Rex Moser revealed that the US book industry was facing a loss of millions of dollars every year owing to copyrights violation. He said the copyright laws in Pakistan were strict and clear, but required immediate implementation.

The function was organized by the American Centre in collaboration with the Quaid-i-Azam Library.

Punjab University’s Dr Khalid Mahmood Malik delivered a lecture on copyright and book piracy in Pakistan. He said the copyright and other related rights were vital to human creativity as they offered to the creators incentives like recognition and fair economic rewards.

He said copyright was described as a flagrant infringement on intellectual property and utter disregard for ownership or authorship of literary works, which include textbooks, essays, articles, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, law reports, tables and compilations.

He said the copyright law in Pakistan was governed by the Copyright Ordinance 1962. The rules of 1967 had been framed for the proper working of the ordinance, he said, and added that significant changes had been made in the ordinance through the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1992 and the Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance 2000.

According to the International Intellectual Property Alliance, he said, around 1,300 US companies were producing and distributing materials protected by copyright laws throughout the world. During 2004, the estimated total trade loss of the US book industry amounted to $603 millions in 67 countries, he quoted the IIPA.

According to the IIPA, he said, the estimated trade losses of the US book industry owing to copyright piracy in Pakistan was $52 millions in 2004.

Mr Moser and LUMS chief librarian Dr Muhammad Ramzan, however, termed the figure ($52 million) inflated and exaggerated.

He said Pakistan had been on its piracy watch list since 1989. The alliance recommended that Pakistan should be designated as a ‘Piracy Foreign Country’ for extremely high levels of piracy and the Pakistan government’s complete lack of attention to the problem, he added. Ms Rebecca McDuff, information resource officer for Afghanistan and Pakistan, and PU’s Dr Kanwal Ameen delivered lectures on copyright and libraries in America and book and battle of survival, respectively.

The speakers recommended that a public awareness campaign about the importance of copyrights should be launched with the help of the mass media with emphasis on moral obligations as well as legal provisions. The readers must be informed about disadvantages of pirated books, especially adverse effect of their printing quality on the eyesight and comprehension.

They said the mechanism of vigilance and enforcement of the copyright laws needed improvements, as there were complaints of corruption on the part of law-enforcement officials and delayed judicial proceedings.

Training should be arranged for the Federal Investigation Agency, police, Customs staff, prosecutors and judges of the cases of copyright violation.

Unavailability of low-price foreign books should be considered as the main cause of book piracy in Pakistan. Publishers should supply textbooks on special prices for developing countries for which they could open their sub-offices in Pakistan.

They said the government should provide financial and legal assistance to the Pakistan IPRs to control this menace.