Indians may have to pay up to ten times more for books of foreign publishers if a proposed change in the Indian Copyright Act comes through.
At present, international publishers sell books in India at prices that are about one-tenth of what buyers pay in the US or UK. But these books cannot be exported.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has recommended that these be allowed to be exported without restriction.
This will leave international publishers with no option but to raise prices. This is the only way they will be able to prevent a slump in their global sales due to possible dumping of low-cost books from India.
This will hit Indians' access to many technical books on engineering, science, business management and economics that foreign publishers sell at a discount.
No wonder the move is being opposed by both publishers and writers.
Sanjiv Goswami, president, the Association of Publishers in India (API), said, "If territorial rights that publishers enjoy are done away with, prices of academic books will increase ten-fold, as low-priced editions of books will be shipped to countries where they are normally sold at higher prices, thus offering publishers no incentive to make low-priced editions available in India. Books will become expensive."
"The proposed amendment is a bad idea as it will take away India's reputation for protection of intellectual content. People w ill no longer have access to low-priced editions. In a free market, books will be imported and publishers will cease to promote new authors." said writer Gurucharan Das.
"If this Bill goes through in its current form, it will damage the thriving publishing industry in the country. Books which remain unsold in the US and UK can be now dumped in India. People will lose access to what they prefer to read", said author Jaishree Misra.
"The amendment would in one fell swoop kill off Indian publishers and make the country a pirate haven," said writer William Darlymple.
Chiki Sarkar, editor-in-chief, Random House, said, "In an open market, publishers would no longer be able to take decisions regarding what would suit writers in a particular region, be it in a simple matter like pricing or a complex issue such as getting a fix on publicity and marketing strategy. A book would merely be made available in stores, which would adversely impact authors and literary writing in the country."
Low readership due to lack of proper publicity would impact the royalty payable to authors, he added.
API and the Federation of Indian Publishers have asked the government to review the proposal.
Though the ministry proposed the change to make prices competitive, the industry says prices in the country are already low and the move will hit publishers, authors and consumers.
