Egyptian publishers sustain up to LE 300 million a year due to illegal book copies and piracy, said Saead Abdo, Chairman of Egyptian Publishers Union (EPU) during a press conference recently held at EPU’s headquarters in Cairo. “This illegal act harms Egypt’s reputation abroad and at the same time undermines the rights of publishers and authors.”
“The 130 titles seized in a warehouse in the city of Shubra al-Kheima belong to 30 Egyptian publishing houses. The prints of each title reached 500 copies; some went beyond, especially the bestselling books that the forgers sold at low prices to readers.” he added.
EPU Chairman called on the legislative and regulatory authorities to stiffer penalties for book falsification and printing without obtaining intellectual property rights, pointing out that the current penalty of five thousand pounds fine for the first time, and ten thousand pounds or imprisonment for recidivism, is not consistent with the damage caused by the crime of forgery.