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Stanely Mushava in BULAWAYO
The Anti-Piracy Focus Group convened by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair has announced a multi-sectoral plan to curtail book piracy.
The focus group has roped in police, city council, border control officials, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, the judiciary, publishers, booksellers, authors, librarians and education ministries to stamp  out piracy.

Book piracy involves the replication, use and distribution of copyrighted literature through scanning, photocopying, printing and electronic duplication.

Speaking at the Writers, Publishers, Librarians and Booksellers Workshop during the Bulawayo edition of ZIBF, the focus group chairperson, Mr Blazio Tafireyi, said that a document detailing the piracy-busting plan of action will be circulated among all stakeholders for approval on Tuesday.
“We  spent  a  long  time  coming up  with  ways to stamp out piracy because we wanted real not piecemeal solutions,” Mr Tafireyi said.

“Our previous efforts to fight corruption failed so we went back to observe why we failed and work towards more effective solutions.
“Reasons for our past failure include lack of awareness among stakeholders themselves, dysfunction of the book value chain and a lax policy system,” he said.

Mr Tafireyi lamented that while the jail term for cattle rustling was 60 years, the law attaches nominal value to intellectual property hence a two-year sentence which is rarely enforced.

He pointed out that local legislation is weak with regard to piracy despite the fact that the book sector is the parent industry for all the other sectors.

“Education, engineering, virtually every industry hinges on the book sector. That is how big the industry is. Government must move in to protect the sector,” Mr Tafireyi said.

“We have always had challenges but I can safely say all hope is not lost. There has been satisfactory progress in coming up with an integrative approach to combat piracy.

“Consumers and pirates must be conscientised to value intellectual property like any other asset. We will also lobby for more severe penalties against offenders. There are loose ends which must be addressed before we regroup.

“The education ministries are the main consumers of pirated books. Before we consider criminal action against schools we need to seat the headmasters down and explain the legal implications of piracy.

“The other problem is that people who sell pirated books on the streets are made to pay a US$10 fine for street vending when apprehended. That’s not the correct charge. Street vending and book piracy are different crimes and nothing is being done to contain the latter,” he said.

Other themes deliberated on at the workshop included: “Traditional Arts as Intellectual Property,” “The Importance of Indigenous Knowledge Literature” and “The Role of Libraries in Promoting Indigenous Languages”