Preventing the problem of pirated books

Pirated books are rampant

According to current regulations, to ensure sufficient quantity and qualitytextbooks for the new school year, the printing and distribution of textbooks must be carried out by qualified publishers. After publication, textbooks will be delivered to local suppliers.

Currently, in the market, in addition to the textbooks for grades 5, 9, and 12 of the old general education program, there are 3 textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education and Training to be taught from the 2023-2024 school year, including "Connecting knowledge with life", "Creative horizon" compiled and published by Vietnam Education Publishing House and the "Kite" set compiled and published by Vietnam Publishing Investment and Educational Equipment Joint Stock Company in cooperation with the Pedagogical Publishing House (under Hanoi National University of Education) and the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House (under Ho Chi Minh City University of Education).

However, due to the high demand and high book prices, many people have taken advantage of the situation to smuggle pirated and fake books into the market. In response to the above situation, on March 7, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 593/QD-UBND, completing the Interdisciplinary Team to prevent and combat piracy in Nghe An province. After being completed, the Interdisciplinary Team has stepped up inspections of printing and publishing activities and cultural products in the area. Specifically, from August 10 to September 6, 2023, members of the Interdisciplinary Team simultaneously launched inspections of book publishing establishments at 10 publishing establishments in Vinh City and a number of districts and towns. Through inspections, it was discovered that 4 establishments in Vinh City and Dien Chau, Tan Ky, and Do Luong districts had been trading in pirated books. At these facilities, the Interdisciplinary Team discovered and seized dozens of books and more than 150 publications without invoices or documents, showing signs of being counterfeit.

Working with the authorities, the owners of the establishments could not present documents proving the origin of the publications; the confiscated publications were mainly textbooks, reference books, etc. These were books suspected of being counterfeit, similar in appearance to books of other publishers, from images to scratch card codes and anti-counterfeit stamps. However, when activating the scratch card code printed on the book, it was reported that it did not exist or had been used, so users could not access the electronic documents according to their personal accounts. The inspection team drew up a record of administrative violations and advised the Provincial Anti-piracy Joint Team to issue a decision to impose an administrative fine, with a total amount of more than 42 million VND.

Mr. Bui Van Chung - Captain of Market Management Team No. 3, Nghe An Market Management Department, said: Textbooks are a special product, produced under the strict control of functional agencies. However, due to the high demand at the beginning of each school year, many bad guys still deliberately organize the printing and distribution of pirated and fake books. Many people even buy real books from publishers, then mix in low-quality books to make a profit.

“In the coming time, we will continue to strengthen market inspection and control, promptly detect and strictly handle businesses that violate textbook trading activities in the area,” Mr. Chung emphasized.

Strict management and handling

The 2023-2024 school year is the year to change textbooks for grades 4, 8 and 11; reprint textbooks for grades 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 according to the new general education program (2018) and reprint textbooks for grades 5, 9, 12 of the old general education program (2000). In Nghe An, entering this school year, it is estimated that more than 900,000 students and nearly 50,000 teachers have entered the new school year.

With a large demand of nearly 1 million teachers and students, plus the selling price of each set of textbooks ranging from 130,000 - 370,000 VND (depending on the type), it can be seen that each school year, the cost of buying textbooks in Nghe An is very large, up to hundreds of billions of VND. Not to mention, in addition to textbooks, parents also have to buy additional reference books for their children to study. Because of the huge profits, many people have taken advantage of smuggling pirated and poor quality books into the market for profit.

Major Ngo Anh Sang - an officer of the Internal Political Security Department, Nghe An Provincial Police, said: Taking advantage of the beginning of the new school year, the situation of counterfeit and poor quality textbooks has increased, affecting the rights of consumers. The Interdisciplinary Team for Anti-piracy, chaired by the Department of Information and Communications, in coordination with the Provincial Police and the Market Management Department, has strengthened inspection work, promptly detected and strictly handled establishments that violated the law, sold publications without invoices, documents, books with signs of being counterfeited, etc., thereby organizing propaganda, guidance, and requiring establishments to strictly comply with the provisions of the law.

According to some experts, in order to bypass the authorities, in addition to using fake stamps and barcodes, pirates often only print a few books in the entire series of books that have been published by publishers. These can be books of minor subjects such as: Fine Arts, Music, reference books, exercise books, etc., then mix them into real books to sell for profit. Buying fake textbooks, reference books, and books of poor quality will greatly affect students' learning, especially errors in content and political errors will affect education.

The representative of the Market Management Department of Nghe An province said that every year, the unit has also issued a plan to inspect and combat violations in the publishing sector. Before the new school year, the General Department of Market Management also requested forces in the industry to strengthen State management, inspection and market control of textbooks, publications, and learning materials that do not meet quality standards, and pirated textbooks that are floating on the market. At the same time, the Market Management force is assigned to promptly detect, prevent and strictly handle according to the law for businesses trading in textbooks, publications, and learning materials, contributing to raising awareness of law compliance of businesses, protecting the rights and legitimate interests of consumers.

It can be seen that, although the law has strict sanctions against the acts of printing and trading pirated books, specifically, according to Article 334 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended in 2017, which stipulates the crime of violating regulations on publishing activities, any individual or organization that violates regulations on publishing activities can be criminally prosecuted with a prison sentence of up to 5 years. In addition, the offender can also be fined up to 100,000,000 VND, banned from holding positions, practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 1 to 5 years. However, due to the large profits, many subjects still find ways to operate, so more drastic measures are needed to deal with this problem. Therefore, the authorities need to further strengthen management and supervision, parents themselves need to be alert, raise awareness, only buy books from reputable establishments, establishments that have been licensed to publish textbooks, do not buy floating books because of cheap prices, buy books from establishments that do not guarantee quality, avoid the case of "losing money, getting sick".