LAHORE – The police conducted raids on some bookstores and publishing houses and allegedly arrested three suspects for printing and selling pirated books of Oxford University Press (OUP) by violating copyright and trademark.
According to a press release, Lower Mall raiding police party recovered stock of pirated books and registered FIR under Copyright Act 66/67 on the complaint of OUP Manager Sales and Distribution Kashim Hussain against the arrested, including the owners of Mansoor Printing Press at Lower Mall and Adeel Printing Press in Shafiqabad.
The suspects were printing and selling versions of OUP textbooks. Police also conducted raids in Islampura, Badami Bagh, Chandni Chowk and the Urdu Bazaar. The press release said the campaign came at a ‘crucial time,’ just before the new term of schools and colleges. It claimed the pirated books were of low quality, had pages missing and overlapping and used distorted pictures.
It further said students were buying counterfeited books on the same price as original books. Retailers and middlemen were earning more profit from pirated books instead of selling the original. Some books recovered from the storehouses include; Nirdban-i-Urdu, Amazing Science, Urdu Ka Guldasta, Islamiat, Sound English, New Active English amongst others.
