Racket in pirating software books busted, four held

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, NOV. 29. A major racket involved in pirating international and national books on computer software was busted by the Task Force here on Wednesday. Four persons were arrested and pirated books worth over Rs.1 crore were seized from their possession.

Speaking to presspersons here, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Task Force, Mr. Mohd. Iqbal, said raids were conducted on four stores, Universal Book Shop, New Dominion Book Centre, Swadha Graphics and Shruthi Auto Xerox. The action followed a complaint from the Publishers Association, Association of American Publishers and their member companies and was the first such raid conducted in South India, he said.

Apart from recovering photocopied and cheap pirated reprints, the Task Force also seized five photocopiers and one computer used for scanning and storing the computer publications and drawings. The shop owners arrested were Syed Ibadat Ali, Mohd. Mislauddin Riaz, G. Rajesh and M. Prakash.

Mr. Iqbal said the titles seized during raids included `Bahrami: Object Oriented Systems Development', `Core Java Vols. 1 and 2', `Data Based Management Systems' and `Java: FAQ'. These books were sold at a price ranging from Rs.100 to Rs.10,000 depending on the demand and actual cost of the book in the international market, he said.

India is a member of the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works and also of the Universal Copyright Convention. As part of the Convention, Copyright material created by a person who is a national or a resident of a member country is automatically protected in other member countries.

Counsel for Publishers Association and the Association of American Publishers, Mr. Akash Chittranshi, said the police would be approached for help in cleansing the publishing industry of the piracy problems. During the February 2000 International Book Fair in New Delhi, a decision was taken by the Indian and International publishing houses to initiate action against those indulging in the piracy of books, he said.

The first raid was conducted on August 2 in New Delhi where thousands of pirated and illegal reproduction of popular editions were seized, he said adding that similar raids would follow in other States.

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Section  : Southern States
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