Even taking into account the fact that I am a student, I am proud of the fact that I buy more books than what is usually expected from a teenage boy like me in Pakistan. Therefore, I have become accustomed to facing the perennial problem of developing countries like ours face:rampant piracy. I thoroughly detest piracy for the obvious fact that it is extremely unfair for the actual author of the book (which is the same line of reasoning for plagiarism which I also thoroughly detest; I am very careful to cite the sources in my blog but you people are more than welcome to point out any place where I might not have cited the source due to my negligence). Ok, so we were on piracy of books. Well, it is pretty rampant in Pakistan to be honest and the worst part is almost everyone is ignorant about it. Almost everyone thinks that it is just as legitimate to buy the five hundred percent reduced-price books but hardly anybody realizes that it is not because that is piracy. The money does not go to the author. This is a disincentive for authors and we might end up with no books at all.
However, the other side is just as convincing. I know that I talk more about the importance of education in my life than I talk about myself but in Pakistan, where the median wage per day falls far below the price of the original books, things are not that simple. People in Pakistan are almost justified to say that pirated books provide them with reading at an affordable price.
However, I feel that there is only one solution to this dilemma. Many publishers now also have special low-price editions specifically aimed at people of developing countries. These editions not only provide the books at an affordable price but also help fight the problem of piracy. I feel that our only way forward is that more of these books are published. I believe that the publishing of these books will help both authors and the readers because authors would be able to gain from reaching out to the untapped markets of developing countries.
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