In
Cambodia, Korea, Thailand and India, since about 1990, there has been a
large business in pirated facsimiles of books, ranging in quality from
glued photocopies to fully printed facsimiles with genuine paperback
covers. Despite recent crackdowns, the asian book counterfeiting
enterprises constitute 90% of book forgeries worldwide. Two non-asian
countries are also responsible for the output of Pirate editions;
Uganda and Zimbabwe. Kenya is also suspected of turning a blind eye to
this trade. Unknown quantity, mid 1990s. Only two identified to date; "The Overman Culture" and "The Last Continent"
Many thanks to Brian Mayhew, who sent these photographs of a Cambodian pirate copy he purchased while out there in 1998
Cambodian pirate copy of The Last Continent
The book is simply a colour laser printed paper cover wrapped around a stack of glued photocopies
As you can see, the original 2nd hand purchase price of the book is now part of the photocopy
As also is the price-change label on the back, now part of the laser-printed cover.
The cover paper is so thin that it has warped because of the glue applied to the spine
If anyone has any more, please send me images... better still, if you have finished with it, I would love it for my collection.
Cold War Issues
During
the cold war, the import of literature to the Soviet Union was
expensive and not consistent with the fixed-price regime used by the
governments behind the iron curtain. The consequence of this was that
western works approved by the Soviet Government were printed within the
USSR for sale within the union. These printed works never recompensed
the rights owners in the west and since the Kremlin were both
unapproachable and unrepressable, the rights owners could not stop
these publications. Cold War issues generally did not replicate western
covers, but were bound in Soviet designed covers ranging from single
colour to multi-colour printings. On occasions, the paper used for
printing was substandard, often being contaminated by unrefined river
water during the papermaking process. One Cold War Issue examined by
me, required a mask and gloves due to the noticeable odour of effluent
emanating from the pages. Unknown quantity, mid 1970s. Only one identified to date;"The Cloud Walker" (also simultaneously published in Poland)
Plagiarisms
Only
one known; a Brazillian translation of "A Far Sunset", claimed to have
been written by (rather than translated by) Carlos DaCosta, publication details unknown, believed
to be mid 1980s.
