Sunday, August 15, 2010

Copyrights? They don't really exist in Ho Chi Minh City

Alyssa and I made it back to Ho Chi Minh City in one piece after our bike trip. On our way to a restaurant we were walked past some women who were selling copies of The Lonely Planet. I didn't have one for Korea so I decided to ask how much. Then I realized these weren't normal guide books, but books that had been copied and then reproduced without the publisher's permission. After checking to make sure that it was a 2010 edition I bargained the woman down to about $6. This was a steal considering in Korean the same book costs about $25.

Here's sort of a bad shot of what these book peddlers carry around. They carry these tall stacks filled with an assortment of Lonely Planets from around the world along with popular novels. They are all photo copied versions. It's quite the entrepreneurial set-up.

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