'Publishing must focus on education, economics, enforcement'

Publishing sector should focus on education, economics and enforcement to ensure protection of copyright of creators and honour their work, according to members from the fraternity.
This was stated by Youngsuk Chi, immediate past president, International Publishers Association, at a seminar titled "Copyright in Publishing: Awareness and Outreach" organised by FICCI in association with Association of Publishers in India (API) here last evening.
Chi also released a manual "What is Copyright?" on the occasion.
"To spread awareness about copyright, which is an intangible asset, the book needs to go viral on the digital platform and it is essential to educate people that the creator of an idea must be rewarded," Chi said.

The event was the first of the seven series event undertaken to spread awareness about copyright infringement in various forms including music, writing, audio-visual media etc. The series has been funded by the UK High Commission with the support of the industry.
Explaining the economics of the business, Chi said that the publishing industry needs to ensure balance is maintained between material to be disseminated for public consumption and one for sustaining business by selling for a price. For this, he said it should be ensured that the products are not too expensive and are easily available.

Speaking about enforcement, Chi said there was a need to go after those who illegally make commercial profits from the work of creators and added that enforcement was also a kind of education.

Responding to a query on whether school books should be sold with no-profit, Chi said, "Zero-profit is not a sustainable business model in today's time. The publishing industry is fast evolving and with digitisation, publishers need to make a legitimate profit in order to sustain their business."
Another participant Urvashi Butalia, Chairperson, FICCI Publishing Committee and Director, Zubaan, said that the publishing industry was making efforts to disseminate knowledge easily at a reasonable cost, keeping the interest of both publisher and user in mind.
"Publishers were working towards defining certain work as copyright to protect the interest of the creator and make other material freely accessible for public to use," she said.

Rohit Kumar, Co-Chair FICCI publishing committee and outgoing president, API, informed that the seminar was first in the series that would be held in the next coming months to spread awareness about copyright.