The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the authority vested with the power to issue tax stamps for books legally published and sold in Turkey, recently increased the number of documents and certificates publishers are required to submit in order to obtain these stamps in response to the discovery that pirated book publishers had started to affix tax stamps to their books. Labeling this an increase in cost and a waste of time, law-abiding publishers are up in arms over this practice. "Instead of increasing paperwork, the ministry should implement more effective measures against piracy," they say. The practice of affixing tax stamps to books was initially introduced to combat copyright theft, but pirated book publishers have found ways to circumvent this measure and began to obtain and affix these stamps onto their pirated books. In response, the ministry increased the number of documents needed for the application to receive these stamps by twofold. In the past, four or five documents were sufficient, but the ministry now requires publishers to submit 13. The new publishing season will begin in September, and many books will be published. Publishers say the ministry should stop this practice as it requires additional labor and is a waste of time for them.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Copyright and Cinema General Directorate even requires publishers to resubmit documents already recorded in the ministry database. Moreover, although the tax stamp form and the letter of commitment are normally sent over the Internet, publishers are also required to submit hard copies. The information provided in the tax stamp form is repeated in the petition. Another document which publishers are required to submit is a photocopy of the contract form. However, under the Constitution, contracts are considered trade secrets. Publishers already state in the tax stamp form that there is a contract for the work in question. And the list goes on…
Utterly exasperated by this lengthy process, publishers want it to be abolished immediately and replaced by measures that will actually prevent book piracy. Noting that the time wasted and money spent on paperwork does not pay off, Osman Okçu, the general director of Timaş Publishing, says serious steps must be taken to combat copyright theft. Doğan Kitap Editor-in-Chief Deniz Yüce Başarır is also critical of increasing paperwork as a measure against book piracy and demands more serious penal measures. Zeynep Çağlıyor, the editor-in-chief of Can Publishing, finds it sad that pirated books are still being published while law-abiding publishers try to cope with mounting paperwork. However, Reşit Haylamaz, the editor-in-chief of the Kaynak Publishing Group, disagrees. Haylamaz sees the increased paperwork as no problem for publishers who work in a systematic and planned manner.
Turkish Writers' Association (TYB) Secretary-General Metin Celal says that while increased paperwork causes difficulties for law-abiding publishers, pirated book publishers are not affected in the least.
