Tuesday, Nov 12, 2013
Sharjah: A publishing house participating in the Sharjah International Book Fair was shut down on Saturday for violating laws protecting intellectual property when it was found selling books with stolen content and pictures.
The GCC publishing house used drawings and material which were taken from two children’s books titled ‘Pictures and Words’ and ‘ABC letter’ that were originally published by Kalimat, a UAE publishing house.
“The exact copies of the illustrations were used in a different format by the publishing house and the books were sold for only 10 per cent of the original books’ price,” Tamir Saeed, Business Development Manager of Kalimat Publishing House, told Gulf News.
Saeed added that a similar incident had occurred over two years ago involving the same publishing house and the two books in question. “The last time it happened, the publishing house promised to take the books down, but we are having the same problem again this year,” he said.
In addition to the stall being removed from the fair, Kalimat Publishing House, which was founded by Shaikha Budoor Bint Sultan Al Qasimi, will be contacting the concerned authorities to take further action in the matter, said Saeed.
With the participation of 1,010 local and international publishing houses, the SIBF Director Ahmad Bin Rakadh Al Amiri said that the exhibition’s management is extending their efforts to ensure that participating publishing houses are providing the original authors, publishers and translators with full copyright to their books regardless of whether they were originally written in Arabic or translated into any other language.
By Jumana Khamis ?Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
