Boycott on Publishing House Trud

In preparation for a study visit on critical consumption in Italy I was searching the Bulgarian web for any active boycott campaigns in Bulgaria at the present moment.

I was really shocked to read about the action of Publishing House “Trud” (PH Trud) aimed at removing content from the web library for blind people http://bezmonitor.com/ claiming this web library is breaching author’s rights in supposed possession of PH Trud.

The picture published at http://protest.bloghub.org/ on May 24th, is satyric expression of the scandal.
For the English speaking audience, May 24th is the day when we commemorate the cyrilic alphabet and at the pucture are its founders Kiril and Metodii . Тheir eyes are blinded by the brand of "Trud" and the sign below says "Copyrighted".

The full story and details in Bulgarian can be read at
http://www.gatchev.info/blog/?p=284,
http://protest.bloghub.org/

but the main points are that

1) PB Trud has failed to note that Bulgarian regulation has been thoughtful enough to allow dissemination of literature with non commercial purpose, (Law for Author’s right and related rights (LARRR), article 24, para 1 and even further LARR, art. 24, para 2 protects free dissemination of literature for the blind people.
2) It is not clear if PB Trud is at all in possession of the authors rights of some of the works in question, for example Angel Karaliichev “Peoples Tales” are gathered works, therefore even Angel Karaliichev right on them is not fully clear.

The claim made by PH Trud is without any legal ground, its justification and language used in communication memo are absolutely not acceptable and are not truthful.

The Bulgarian authors in question are some of pillars of the Bulgarian literature and in their works they have been fighting injustice and have defended the poor and disadvantaged people.

PH Trud completely misses the point that one blind person has made the utmost effort to provide access for blind people to literature and this is an act only to be admired and supported.

The suggestion of PH Trud to http://bezmonitor.com/ to remove the content in question and instead provide a link to PH Trud’s web place for blind is shameful as it limits the access to information with education purposes to one box in the internet and second due to the fact that znam.bg is a web site with paid subscription is a request to the free http://bezmonitor.com/ to advertise the paid products of PH Trud.


In conclusion herewith I would like to express my support to the boycott campaign against PB Trud. The actions I would undertake are the following :
- boycott the purchase of newspapers published within the group of PB Trud
- boycott the purchase of the books published by PB Trud.

Further to the above actions, I undertake to inform the members of Open Mind organization of the boycott and also the participants of the International Study Visit in the framework of the European Commission – “Youth” Programme – Study Visit “Youth Participation and Critical Consumption:sharing ideas for a responsible life-style”