Protecting copyright!

I agree with what Kristina Chetcuti of Sapienzas Bookshop wrote on World Book Day but by not celebrating the event in the way that was officially approved and announced by Unesco one may not be seeking the full purpose to promote further reading, encourage more publishing houses to operate and provide the public with more local publications and, most important of all, the protection of intellectual property through copyright.

In Malta and Gozo we should look into the protection of intellectual property, unless we want to support the piracy of the printed word.

So the official day was that of April 23; a symbolic date for world literature for it was on this day in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K. Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. I do not recall of any Maltese authors or publishers who died on an April 23.

It was a natural choice for Unesco's general conference to pay a worldwide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity. The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia where, on April 23, St George's Day, a rose is traditionally given as a gift for each book sold.

World Book Day Ltd of the UK is not part of the Unesco celebration which is celebrated on April 23. The British Isles celebration is organised on March 4 and not on the same day as that by Unesco. The British main aim is to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books by providing them with an opportunity to have more books to read but nothing to promote more intellectual property.

Through a parliamentary question it was revealed that from 1995 to 2000 (up to September 2000 only) in Malta we had in use 76,571 reprographic apparata and these would contribute to over 750 million A4 copy pages, although not all of these would be of copyright material. However, even if this amount is calculated to be only 50 per cent of copyright material, it is being copied. If this is so, it is already indicating that we are at an alarming state when one should give greater importance so as to see that intellectual property rights are "respected in the field of copyright and we should encourage more creativity".