The Malaysian Insider :: Books
The Malaysian Insider :: Books |
| Read beyond samba and football, Brazil urges book fair Posted: 09 Oct 2013 06:50 PM PDT With 70 writers and a lively line-up of events, Brazil has pulled out the stops at the Frankfurt Book Fair to shine a light on its literature and culture as guest-of-honour, while protests hit the headlines at home. Award-winning children's writer Ana Maria Machado said Brazil was not perceived, unlike some of its neighbours, as a "land of literature" but with stereotypes based more on "the culture of what is immediately, sensually appreciable: the body". "But it's a body whose intellect is usually forgotten," she bemoaned, "as if we didn't have one, in the celebration of our dances and our music, of football, capoeira and other sports, of sensuality, of bronzed skin on display on the beaches, of Carnival and of caipirinha". The literature is not only diverse but also reflects the country's problems, with society and politics playing a role, the author, who is also the president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, told the opening ceremony late Tuesday. Brazil is gearing up to step into the global limelight, by hosting football's World Cup next year and South America's first Olympics two years later but has been hit by protests over the costs of the events. Angry demonstrators argue the money would be better spent on improving transport, education and health services for poor Brazilians, and thousands rallied this week to support teachers' calls for a pay rise. Writer Luiz Ruffato highlighted the prevalence of violent crime in Brazil, intolerance of gays, low-ranked schooling in a country that is the world's seventh biggest economy and that fewer than four books are, on average, read by Brazilians each year. Advances have been made, with the return of democracy and social advancement for millions, he acknowledged in a speech that won a standing ovation by some in the audience, but described the country as "paradoxical". "Sometimes Brazil appears to us like an exotic region with paradisiacal beaches, jungles, Carnival, capoeira and football, sometimes like a terrible place full of violence in the towns, child prostitution, disregard for human rights and nature," he said. But he said that, having grown up in a poor migrant family, he believed "perhaps naively" that literature can change lives and society. Brazil's best-known author internationally, Paulo Coelho, whose 1988 novel The Alchemist has previously received an award at the fair for being the world's most translated novel, has stayed away this year. He complained in an interview with Die Welt newspaper that he had never heard of about 50 of the 70 writers invited to represent Brazil in Frankfurt. "Presumably they're friends of friends of friends. Nepotism," he said. "What annoys me most is, that currently there is a new exciting literary scene in Brazil. But many of these young authors are not on the list. "People buy culture like they buy fridges" Brazil is seeking to promote the translation of its works into other languages, backed by a 900,000-euro (RM3.8-million) programme by the culture ministry for 2011-13. Since 2011, more than 300 translations a year have been done, 67 of them into German. Bruno Zolotar, marketing director of The Record Publishing Group, said the financial support made a big difference as translations were expensive and complicated by a scarcity of translators. Business has grown over the last decade as the economy has improved, albeit more slowly in the last two years, he said, pointing to a soaring interest in books, with the Rio book fair now the city's third most-attended event after New Year's Eve and Carnival. As salaries have improved, people "bought fridges, cars and now are buying culture, so books," he said. And while Brazilians love their football, fiction about a reality set outside of the country are currently particularly popular. "Most of the young people want to read books that are not exactly about our reality," Rio-based Zolotar said. "It's a kind of escapism." – AFP, October 10, 2013. |
| Small university shop at centre of India publishing row Posted: 09 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT The busy shop, where photocopiers churn out papers for a steady stream of students for a small fee, is at the centre of a court battle brought by three venerable academic presses over the interpretation of India's copyright law. The lawsuit, filed by Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Taylor & Francis against Delhi University and the shop threatens production of course packs – de facto "textbooks" made of photocopied portions of various books. Course packs are common throughout much of the developing world – where most university students cannot afford to purchase new or even second-hand textbooks – and are seen as key to the spread of education there. Distinguished Indian academics have lined up to express dismay over the suit, including Nobel Prize winner and Harvard University professor Amartya Sen, warning that these packs could become expensive, or unavailable altogether, hitting students hard. "As an OUP (Oxford University Press) author I would like to urge my publisher to not draw on the full force of the law to make these course packs impossible to generate and use," Sen wrote in an open letter last September, a month after the case was filed in the Supreme Court. "Educational publishers have to balance various interests, and the cause (access to) of education must surely be a very important one," he wrote. Experts fear that the case could set a precedent that forces the closure of such shops in India. Universities that still want to provide packs to their students could instead be forced into potentially expensive licensing arrangements with publishers to reproduce the texts. Amita Baviskar, associate professor at the Institute of Economic Growth at Delhi University, who has campaigned against the suit, calls it "a case of big-name publishers bullying academics, students and a small shop to make more profit". "If the court rules in favour of the publishers, access to educational material will become more expensive and the quality of students' learning will suffer. Students will struggle without course packs," Baviskar said. Indian copyright law already allows students and academics to photocopy textbook excerpts freely for educational use, under a "fair dealing" provision, according to Baviskar. Publishers, however, argue that this provision, while allowing an individual to copy small numbers of pages for academic use, doesn't extend to a profit-making photocopying shop generating entire course packs. According to Sudhir Malhotra, president of the Federation of Indian Publishers, "a photocopying shop which copies excerpts from various books and then sells the resulting course pack for a profit... this is not fair use, this is commercial exploitation of private property". "It's not as if photocopiers are doing it for free. So why blame publishers for wanting their share?" Malhotra said. The practice of copying textbook excerpts is "typical of emerging economies", according to copyright experts like Jeremy de Beer, associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa in Canada. His published work on the issue includes a 2010 book on copyright law and access to education in eight developing nations, including South Africa, Senegal, Egypt and Kenya. "What I found was that most universities lack the resources to buy brand-new copies of academic books, so photocopying is integral to the education there," de Beer said in a phone interview. Most libraries de Beer visited housed only one copy of each textbook on the syllabus, making it necessary to photocopy whole books, he said. Licensing deals long resisted Publishers do not expect a massive boom in textbook sales even if the lawsuit succeeds, he said. Instead Indian universities are expected to be pushed into new copying arrangements with publishers. "As far as this case in India is concerned, publishers have an ulterior motive. They want to create a system whereby the university obtains a copying licence from the publisher in exchange for a flat fee per student," he said. So far, universities have been reluctant to sign licence deals, saying they can rely – through their small photocopy shops – on "fair use" legal provisions to photocopy material. The Supreme Court of Canada in 2004 ruled on a similar case filed by three legal publishers against the Law Society of Upper Canada. Its verdict supported the Law Society's right to photocopy library materials. The crucial issue, according to de Beer, is whether an Indian court will regard a privately-held photocopying shop in the same light as a not-for-profit library, and whether the court supports licensing deals. "If the court in Delhi supports licensing then publishers can use India as an example to drive a global trend," he said. "In the past, Indian courts have set precedents with important implications for other emerging economies," he said, citing landmark rulings on issues like pharmaceutical patents that helped expand access to cheap drugs in developing nations. "This case has the potential to create similar shock waves." Prem Vipin said his shop in Delhi University, with its six-odd photocopiers and mounds of papers, remains open as the court battle drags on. But he fears for the future, not just for his business but for the students too. "We face tough times. But it is the students who will suffer the most," he said. – AFP, October 10, 2013. |
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