By IPS Correspondents
SANTIAGO, Apr 4 2005 (IPS)

This year is the 500th anniversary of Don Quixote, and a prize-winning Chilean author feels like he is tilting at windmills – though not at all imaginary – in his fight against book piracy and the government’s indifference to the illegal industry.

In 1999, Edwards became the only Chilean writer to ever receive the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, named after the creator of Don Quijote and considered the Spanish-language equivalent of the Nobel prize for literature.

"The government is turning a blind eye to the scandal of piracy," said Edwards, whose latest novel, "El inútil de la familia", was released in late 2004. During the 20 weeks that the book spent on the best-seller list in Chile, however, it faced stiff "competition" from pirated copies sold simultaneously.

"Politicians only remember culture when it’s election time," said the 73-year-old author and former diplomat, who was also awarded the Chilean National Literature Prize in 1994.

With "El inútil de la familia", Edwards’ work reached "the kerbside mall", as fellow Chilean writer José Miguel Varas jokingly refers to the popularity implied when a work is chosen for "cloning" and is illegally sold at makeshift and semi-clandestine street stalls.

The novel was inspired by Joaquín Edwards Bello, a renowned Chilean journalist and the author’s uncle. Novelist Arturo Fontaine praised the "fluent, personal and incisive tone" of the book and described its ending as a "masterstroke".

Jorge Edwards’ best-known previous books, however, are two non-fiction works: "Persona Non Grata", published in 1973, and "Adiós Poeta" (Goodbye, Poet), from 1990.

"Persona Non Grata" – subtitled "A Memoir of Disenchantment with the Cuban Revolution" – recounts the author’s experience as the first diplomatic envoy sent to the island after Chile’s newly elected Socialist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973) restored diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Edwards’ friendship with Cuban dissident writer Heberto Padilla led him to be accused of "conduct hostile to the revolution." He was subsequently declared "persona non grata" and expelled from Cuba mere months after his arrival.

For its part, "Adiós Poeta" tells the story of the author’s close friendship with Chilean Nobel Literature laureate Pablo Neruda. Edwards accompanied the renowned poet during his posting as the Allende government’s ambassador to France.

It was Neruda himself who first recognised Edwards’ literary promise, after the 1952 publication of his first book of short stories, "El patio".

Edwards went on to write two more short story collections, as well as eight novels between 1965 and 2000, prior to "El inútil de la familia".

The author invested four years in the crafting of his latest book, conducting research in Chile, France and Spain, which makes him even more furious to witness the pirating of the fruit of his labour, while a bill seeking greater vigilance and harsher penalties for this illegal industry has been laying dormant in the Chilean congress for years.

The application of the country’s 19 percent general sales tax to books "is a kind of Chilean economic dogma", Edwards said. It also serves to make the already considerable cost of books even higher: an "official" copy of "El inútil de la familia" costs the equivalent of 16 dollars, while a pirated copy can be bought on the streets of downtown Santiago for just five.

In the meantime, Edwards complained at a recent press conference, the government either does nothing to deal with this large-scale illegal industry or proposes what he considers to be unacceptable solutions. He provided the example of a lawmaker who put forward "the brilliant idea of giving away pirated books (confiscated by the authorities) to children in schools."

Moreover, he added, the buyers themselves are cheated when they purchase a pirated copy of a book. "They are badly printed, and have pages missing. It’s like broadcasting a football match and only showing three of the five goals scored," he said.

"If pirated copies of books published by Alfaguara, Aguilar or Anagrama turned up on the streets of Spain, there would be a monumental scandal. If it happened to books published by Gallimard in France, it would bring the government down, because it would be an absolutely inconceivable scandal. But here (in Chile), nothing happens," said Edwards.

Sources from the National Anti-Piracy Commission (CONAPI) told IPS that the illegal trade in counterfeit versions of products from the computer, cultural and entertainment industries leads to roughly 200 million dollars in losses annually, with sales of pirated computer programmes alone accounting for 150 million.

These calculations are based on an approximate estimate of the number of illegal copies sold, and the hypothesis that if counterfeit versions were not available, all of their buyers would have purchased the products legally.

The second most affected sector is the publishing industry, with 25 million dollars in annual losses, followed by the recording industry, with 20 million, and finally the video industry, which loses roughly seven million dollars a year.

Book piracy not only hurts the publishing houses, but also the legitimate bookstores that face unfair competition from itinerant street stalls, Eduardo Castillo, president of the Chilean Book Chamber, commented to IPS.

But Carlos Ossa, the general manager in Chile for Alfaguara (which published "El inútil de la familia"), stressed that those who lose the most from piracy are the authors themselves.

"We worry most about the writers. A publishing house can deal with the problem, because it produces other books that cannot be pirated, because of the high costs involved. But for the authors, it is their work. It’s like sticking a hand in their pockets and stealing directly from them," he maintained.

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