In Pursuit of Publishing Pirates

Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez is taking on the pirates--the underground publishers of Latin America who print and distribute books without an author’s consent and without paying for rights.

While much recent attention has been given pirated music and films, especially as Mexico, Canada and the United States consider a new North American trade agreement, little has been said about bootlegged books.

As the author of the landmark novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” embraces the cause on behalf of himself and his fellow writers, Garcia Marquez is learning what entertainers already know--just how hard this battle is to win.

After a Colombian judge last week released a stash of confiscated, allegedly counterfeit Garcia Marquez novels, the angry author branded the decision a “legalization of piracy” and asked that sales of all his legally printed books be suspended in his native country. Most booksellers complied with the writer’s wishes. But as quickly as his works were whisked off store shelves, copies appeared for sale on Bogota streets--at lower prices.

“The vendors were out there selling them like Marlboros,” Garcia Marquez said in an interview in Mexico City, where he now lives. “Although this (suspension of sales) is a form of suicide, it is a moral act necessary to force the justice system to intervene. I can live perfectly well without selling my books in Colombia, but other authors do not have sufficient strength to defend themselves and their rights.”

He said “Of Love and Other Demons,” his newly completed novel, set in 17th-Century Cartagena, Colombia, would not be published anywhere until the Colombian government cracks down on piracy. “I have been very tolerant of the piracy of my books. Really, I hadn’t felt the effects. But when the justice system legalizes piracy, it is very dangerous for the whole world,” he said.

Authors, friend and foe alike, applauded his move, arguing that multinational companies like Coca-Cola, IBM and Sony find more legal and public support for their complaints of piracy than artists do.

“Unfortunately there is a certain indifference about books,” Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa said Saturday on a visit to Guatemala. “Books are considered a very special kind of object, which should not be considered private property as other objects are. I think it is a romantic idea of books. It is a mistaken idea. Everybody would be absolutely furious if houses or cars were pirated the way that books are pirated.”

Mexican author Octavio Paz, a Nobel winner, also supports Garcia Marquez, whom he has often criticized on political issues. He called the judge’s decision “incredible.”

“The decision of the Colombian authorities to permit piracy is absolutely reprehensible,” Paz said. “Before, we fought against piracy on the high seas. Now, we should fight against piracy of authors’ rights.”

The case in Colombia began last summer when Garcia Marquez’s publisher, Oveja Negra, complained to police that it had been robbed of printing plates and other materials. The publisher warned that pirate copies of “Doce Cuentos Peregrinos” (roughly “Twelve Wandering Stories”) were about to be marketed before the legal editions.

Officials confiscated hundreds of cartons of books from the distributor, Felix Burgos at Distribuidora Norteamerica de Libros.

But in subsequent legal proceedings, questions were raised about the publisher’s claim that the printing materials had been stolen, leading the judge, Patricia Salazar Varon, to ask: “Could it be that parallel editions are being produced without the consent of the writer?”

In part because of the high quality of the disputed books--illegal editions usually employ cheap paper or poor printing--Salazar said she could not determine whether they were pirated and ordered the volumes released. Critics questioned the government’s investigation of the case, and the publisher is appealing the decision.

Garcia Marquez said he does not know who is responsible for the bootlegged copies. The point is, they are unauthorized, he said. “If an author agrees to print 50 copies and a publisher prints 51, that one is pirated.

“I am not pointing fingers,” he added. I am denouncing the existence of pirated books and asking the government to find out who did it and to stop it from happening.”

He said fear of counterfeiting now prompts him “to use my paper shredder more often than my computer.” If he were to toss a manuscript into the trash, someone surely would snatch it up to have it printed, he said.

Less famous authors and authors of other types of literature do not have this problem. Colombian writer Alvaro Mutis said that as long as he wrote poetry, which is unprofitable on the black market, he never worried about piracy. But now that he has written seven novels, he said, “I have begun to shake.

“A book belongs to its author; that’s established by international law,” Mutis said.

“An author lives off his books. It is his source of income. Even if he has made a lot of money, he has a right to the income.”

Mexican essayist Carlos Monsivais agreed, adding that Garcia Marquez is representing the interests of all authors. But he thinks the Nobel Prize laureate faces an uphill battle. “It’s difficult for anyone to control the informal economy,” he said. “What government controls the streets? Not Mexico, not Peru, not Colombia.”