People and organisations are uploading Islamic books to websites and online pages without the permission of publishers or rights holders, so readers no longer buy printed copies, writes Maulana Muhammad Hemayet Uddin, a senior Islamic scholar and author of many books, in an opinion piece in Our Islam. The views are the writer's own.
He says publishers he has spoken to report sales of printed books down by 80 to 90 percent. Many small publishers have already closed and others are thinking of doing so.
If this continues, he fears, publishers will stop bringing out new titles, new writers will find no one to publish them, royalties will dry up and Islamic writing and research will be badly discouraged.
He calls for a law, if necessary, to stop anyone uploading books online without the publisher's permission, accepting that some readers will lose free access in the wider interest. To those uploading books he says it violates copyright law and is impermissible in Islamic jurisprudence because it destroys the author's right in the work.
He urges the publishers' association to take legal action and the relevant government department to act.
The piece appeared in Our Islam's opinion section.
Photo: Freer Gallery of Art / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Our Islam
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