THERE is need to introduce harsher penalties if Zimbabwe is to win the battle against book piracy, vice-chairperson of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), Musaemura Zimunya has said. Khumbulani Mpofu Own Correspondent
In an interview during the second and final day of ZIBF 2014 at the Large City Hall in Bulawayo, Zimunya said as things stood, people convicted of cattle theft faced harsher penalties than someone convicted of book piracy.
“A school textbook, on the other hand, would bring in much more revenue to publishers, authors and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority,” he said.
“Now, if someone goes book pirating and they get two years maximum, what is that?”
Zimunya added that ZIBF has a focus group that has been running since September 2013 and it seeks to identify areas which should be prioritised for the sake of consolidating anti-piracy. These areas include awareness campaigns as lots of individuals do not know the criminality of pirating textbooks.
Another campaign is the book value chain, which includes writers publishers, booksellers, librarians and printers.
