On 9 May the Bulgarian publishing house ‘Trud’, owned by the German media group Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, sent a letter threatening with a lawsuit a Bulgarian specialized web library for blind people - bezmonitor.com (its name means ‘without a monitor’). The publishing house claims that they own the copyrights for certain classical Bulgarian books and translations of foreign-language ones, which appear on the website, in ASCII format, which is good for reading by the audio programs used by people who cannot see. The website is non-commercial; its creator, Victor Kirilov, who is also blind, is supporting it on his own. Although he removed the texts in question in the same day, he mentioned this case to his friend Grigor Gatchev, who is recognized translator, an author and well-known blogger.
On 14 May Grigor wrote about the story in details in his personal blog, and hundreds of people express their outrage towards the immoral behavior of the publishing house. The news quickly spread in Internet, reaching over 50 websites and around 90 forums, and hundreds of e-mails were sent to the office of the publishing house, demanding explanation of this behavior.
In addition to being immoral, this action of “Trud” appeared also to be illegal. The Bulgarian Law for Copyright and related rights states:
Art. 24 (1) Without the agreement of the owner of the copyright is permitted:
…
10. Distribution of already published texts through Braille writing or a similar alternative method, if this is not done for profit.
(All texts on bezmonitor.com are in pure ASCII, and almost only blind people visit it, so, it falls under the category “similar to Braille”.)
Bulgarian citizens as well as organizations of the blind people, such as Association ‘Eyesight’ and the National Library for the Blind ‘Louis Braille’ informed all Bulgarian media on the behavior of publishing house ‘Trud’, which itself owns a few major daily newspapers. ‘Trud’ tried to prevent the story from becoming public, as the owner of the publishing house is also a director of the Union of the Bulgarian Publishers. Most major BG media outlets kept silent. However, fewer small independent newspapers voiced people’s outrage.
After removing the texts, Victor asked the publishing house for documents stating that they really hold the copyrights in mention - after all, anyone could say in e-mail anything. “Trud” refused to supply him any documents, and instead wrote a complaint to the Bulgarian Service for Combating the Organized Crime (despite that all texts in mention were taken down). The department, although a state institution, has reputation for serving corporate interests and having made illegal arrests on previous cases. A phone call from the department to the blind programmer of the website, Victor, makes him remove all texts under the fear of arrest, which although completely illegal and immoral, would put Victor’s health in danger.
Later, Victor was summoned to the office of BSCOC and presented to sign a document in sense that he would be responsible for all violation of copyrights that may involve his site, and that this is a criminal offense that will lead to years of imprisonment. He was explained that, after this warning, the copyright holders don’t have to resolve the matter with him first, and may directly trial him - and that even a sole pretension on violation would result for him in being arrested (possibly for years, since these trials take a long), and his PC confiscated. Which, to a blind man with a frail health, is a clear attempt for intimidation. Victor was refused any access to the complaint being filed against him, or to the documents the publishing house is said to have attached to the complaint to prove their right. He was refused even to have a copy of the document he signed.
At this meeting, however, it turned out that not only his site is being harassed - all Bulgarian online electronic libraries are targeted by the complaints to BSCOC, despite that some of them never had any copyrighted texts. At a talk with the “Trud” CEO, Nikola Kitzevsky, Victor learned that “Trud” now makes a commercial (paid) online electronic library, and is determined to make it the only electronic library in Bulgaria. Which sheds some light over what is really happening.
The authors whose texts are in question are pillars of the Bulgarian literature. In their stories they fight injustice and defend the poor and disadvantaged people. Now a corporation, many years after authors’ death, is attempting to prevent access to those stories for those very same people…
It is sad that the publishing house ‘Trud’ completely misses the point that one blind person has made the utmost effort to provide access for sightless people to literature and this is an act only to be admired and supported. People of Bulgaria, however, are determined to win this battle.