While the government has taken out all books from the ambit of its proposed new bill governing newspapers and other publications, publishers say a regulation or registration mechanism in place for books has always been lacking.
DNA has recently reported about the government's decision to scrap the colonial 150-year-old archaic Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 and put in place a fresh Registration of Newspapers and Publications Bill, 2017, that would not cover books and printing presses, but would have provisions to take action against paid news.
Several publishers told DNA that even when books were under the ambit of the PRB Act, they were not exactly regulated.
Ananth Padmanabhan, CEO of HarperCollins told DNA that the books industry is not governed by any regulatory mechanism.
"There has never been any regulatory mechanism for books. For selling books, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) has to be obtained, but that is again a difficult and a tedious process and more of a record-keeping mechanism," Padmanabhan said.
"If there are issues related to publishing, they can be brought to the notice of the publishers' association," he added.
Ravi Singh, publisher and co-founder of Speaking Tiger books, a relatively new publishing house, however, said making books exempt from the bill is a good move.
"Books have always been free from all regulations and rightly so," he said, emphasising that getting ISBN for books have been a problem for most publishers lately.
As per new rule
The government had recently scrapped the colonial 150-year-old archaic Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867 and put in place a fresh Registration of Newspapers and Publications Bill, 2017, that would not cover books and printing presses, but would have provisions to take action against paid news.
- newspapers
- publications
- Books
- registration
- PRB Act
- Ananth Padmanabhan
- HarperCollins
- International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
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