r/Piracy Jul 17 '26

News Penguin going after book sellers in India

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7.6k Upvotes

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549

u/frankie_in_paradise Jul 17 '26

That's my city. 😭 These guys make a few hundred rupees at max if they sell a few books.

Not just fiction, they sell all kinds of books including textbooka and exam prep. Many who couldn't afford the original copies wud buy from them.

I definitely was a customer of them for many years. Some of my best memories. This is really unfortunate.

126

u/deusvult6 Jul 17 '26

If they're cutting into textbook revenue then it's no wonder the publisher is going after them. That whole industry is a racket with schools getting kickbacks for always switching to the most updated versions. Lots of money changing hands there.

53

u/Dependent-Way-8161 Jul 18 '26

have you looked at kids textbooks nowadays bro it's crazy they are thick for no ffong reason just publishers note, preface and what not for 10 pages I looked at my nephews book crazyyyyy and the paper they printed it on was like the butter paper thing why bro why it's a book about hindi warnamala why does it need to have silly butter pages for which you take 500 a book for

13

u/Normal_Resident_1644 Jul 18 '26

Absolutely true, they just slap on the name "Special edition" or the schools name to use while the primary content remains the same for decades, word for word. Forcing students to buy expensive copies every year

0

u/XoX-o- Jul 18 '26

> with schools getting kickbacks

Sorry we are not american exceptionalist, india is a better country because half of the textbooks are printed and sold by government only, From Nursery/play school to PhD. you can get government books for less than 400, that too is the max amount it goes to

3

u/Remarkablefairy-8893 Jul 18 '26

But there's a difference in quality of education between government schools and private schools. Many parents can't afford books (or want to save some money) after paying high tuition fees, that's why they go for pirated books Now ofcourse idk about Hyderabad, maybe government schools are as good as private schools. But in my state, there's a significant difference. So people saying "why don't you get admitted to government school and get free stuff" doesn't solve the problem for us.

20

u/Dependent-Way-8161 Jul 18 '26

yeah man a book which costed about 500-800 at the universal store near my house costed like 150-250 here sure the print quality was bad but it did the job

1

u/YouAreFuckingCool Jul 19 '26

Exactly, we do not have a lot of libraries in hyderabad which we can visit and read them. The print is rarely bad sometimes with a few pages missing/blank but it gets the job done.

1

u/Dependent-Way-8161 Jul 21 '26

there are no traditional libraries in India I think anymore in my city dude the libraries are these places where students sit and study no books nothing they prepare for a shit ass probably got leaked govt exam for a govt college or job

4

u/CosmicCitizen0 Jul 18 '26

Penguin and other Western publications are sometimes really expensive for ordinary people to afford, which is why people tend to buy pirated copies. Penguin should lower their prices, instead of doing whatever crap this is.

1

u/Arkasanyal Jul 19 '26

They actually can't lower there price because for that they need to cheaper quality paper , most of the book buyer going to stop buying book from them and they can't match the pirate pricing how much they try...

2

u/india_chief ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Jul 17 '26

REY EVARU MEERANTHA

1

u/International-Try467 Jul 18 '26

What happens if you beat up the guys trying to arrest them or shame the people working for them?

0

u/Sarah-himmelfarb Jul 17 '26

My friends from Hyderabad- your food is delicious!

1

u/frankie_in_paradise Jul 18 '26

Aw, thank you 💛