Egyptian publishers union vows to fight book piracy

Egyptian Publishers Union vowed on Wednesday to fight against book piracy and illegal book copies, saying that the union is about to prepare a black list of all the publishers  and print houses, which violate copyrights law and sell illegal copies of the protected books. Mohammed Rahsad, Head of the union said in a statement that he asked the union’s members to report any violations, stressing that what instigated him to prepare this black list is what he called “the unprecedented spread” of the illegal copies of the Arabic and Foreign books in the Egyptian market during the past few months. “The union will receive detailed reports with the names of any publishing house, or print house that violates the copyrights law from his members, to create a database and blacklist them, as a first step to take lawful procedures against them.” Said Rashad. The procedures will include eliminating blacklisted publishers them from participating in any local or regional book fair.