According to the Interfax-Ukraine Culture project, book piracy remains one of the most pressing problems facing the Ukrainian publishing market and costs the industry hundreds of millions of hryvnias annually, said Oleksandra Koval, acting director of the Ukrainian Book Institute, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“People need to realize that a pirated book is essentially a stolen product,” Koval said in the interview.
According to her, Ukrainian publishers and authors today face both the distribution of counterfeit printed books through marketplaces and social media, as well as the illegal distribution of electronic publications via Telegram channels and specialized websites.
Koval emphasized that the problem lies not so much in the imperfection of the legislation as in the lack of effective mechanisms to combat copyright infringements. She noted that the Ukrainian Book Institute and the National Intellectual Property Authority do not have the authority to shut down pirated resources on their own, and that rights holders themselves must initiate the process of protecting their rights.
“It is the author or publisher who must document the violation, contact law enforcement agencies, follow the case, and bring it to court. And this is complex and quite exhausting work, since every case of piracy is effectively a separate case,” she explained.
At the same time, Koval reported on the first positive changes in cooperation with online platforms. In particular, during a discussion at the “Book Arsenal,” a representative of OLX stated the company’s readiness to block the sale of pirated books on the platform.
According to the head of the UIC, other major marketplaces should also join this practice, as it is precisely the cooperation between digital platforms, the state, rights holders, and society that can yield results in the fight against the illegal book market.
In addition, the Ukrainian Book Institute, together with the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Book Distributors, proposes creating a coalition of honest sellers and publishers and introducing special labeling for legal resources so that buyers can easily distinguish official sellers from pirates.
https://interfax.com.ua/news/culture/1175904.html
ALEXANDRA_KOVAL, piracy, pirated_book, Ukrainian Book Institute
