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Pam pays the money _ only one-quarter of the original books'
actual price. She walks out, without realising that she has just
broken the law.
Here's the catch: Though Pam has purchased the photocopied works for educational purposes, it's still considered illegal as it affects the copyright owner. And there's no doubt that the copying shop has also broken the law as it has obviously conducted the act for commercial purposes, affecting the financial benefits of the rights owner. Some might defend Pam since she's a student with a limited budget. But when there are 100 more just like her in the course, and hundreds or even thousands across the country taking similar courses and needing the same books, their authors and publishers could end up taking a severe financial hit. That in fact is what's been happening to the local printing industry, says Sathit Uruwongwanich, managing director of Witthayaphat Co, which publishes a lot of textbooks. He estimates that the industry is losing 20-30% of the revenue it should be earning. Meanwhile, copying shops are proliferating and prospering. Most copying shops, he believes, realise that duplicating textbooks is illegal. "However, they tend to forget it when the money is good. There are a large number of them that keep emerging around university's campuses." Mr Sathit also believes, though, that most students probably aren't aware that they're breaking the law. Even if they understand the law, many students simply can't afford to pay the market rate for textbooks. One former student of Assumption University (Abac) said she was a regular customer of copying shops during her school days because the books she needed were imported and expensive, since all of the courses she took were conducted in English. "I would only get the original copies for the subjects that I really liked and if I wanted to keep the copies for good. Other than that, I would go for the photocopied ones," said the student, who asked not to be named. "I wish the university could bring the price down so more students could afford the books. Actually, the individual books were not that expensive but it really added up when we had to buy many of them at the same time in one semester." Alisara Chirapongse, 21, another former Abac student in Advertising, said she preferred to buy genuine copies. However, sometimes the books were not ordered in by the university so she had no choice. "Abac kids can afford it but it's just that the real copies were not available to us," she explains. For core courses, she continues, there were a lot of required textbooks and each one cost 600 to 700 baht a copy. "If the price decreased then I suppose it would be better as the university would be willing to order them so we didn't have to resort to photocopying shops." Chalit Limpanavech, the chairman of Abac's marketing and communications department, says the best way to cut down on violations of the law would be to force the prices of textbooks down. "Not all students are rich. Usually the tuition fees are already expensive, particularly for the international or English-speaking universities. This will only add more burden for the parents. ... Meanwhile, the publishers have to compromise and drive the price down," Acharn Chalit explains. He also suggests that more copyright owners should take legal action against copying shops. "The more they get arrested, the fewer they will become." Both students and shopkeepers should be better aware of the issue, especially the former, he says. "It's necessary to implant this awareness in students since they are growing up to be the future of the country too." Areeya Ratanaya, an intellectual property specialist at the international law firm Tilleke & Gibbins, says students and parents should realise that education is an asset and an investment, and as with any long-term investment, families need to make a financial plan. This includes the cost of learning materials. She also affirms that the widespread local practice of stores and their student customers does not pass the "fair use" test since it seriously breaches the interests of copyright owners. The problem of costly educational materials is not unique to Thailand, she notes. For high-level graduate courses in the United States, a single textbook can cost up to $200. Some law books cost $400-500 each. Publishers argue that the material is highly specialised and the print runs are low as a result, so they need to recover their costs. Ms Areeya says there are better ways to protect all parties' interests. Most universities usually offer to re-purchase used books from students at half-price and resell them to other students with a small margin. Sometimes, students sell used books among themselves, advertise them on university websites or even on eBay or Amazon.com. The prices will get even cheaper this way. "So, the market mechanism will find its way to solve the problem," she says, adding that in any case students should look at textbooks as an investment. "Sometimes, I wonder why some students are ready to spend money on other things but not education. We usually decide to invest in things that we believe are valuable and worthwhile to us. And, education should be one of them."  Bangkok Post Section: Your Money 6 August 2007 |
