Copyright

I was not being coy at all when I said that my life as a writer is quite interesting, eventful and unlike any other. In some ways it is even unique. Though in many respects it is not the best kind of life experience...

Going through my archive, I found a document showing that S. Derevyanko, director of the publishing house "AST-Press", is the holder of the trademark "EVGENY EVGENYEVICH SUKHOV".

This is one of the few documents I kept as a memento. Most I did not keep.

The cynicism of the situation is that I did not even suspect that Sergey Derevyanko had patented my first name, patronymic and surname. And he calmly printed books under my name for a number of years.

And his main argument was that he could patent my personal data because it is not part of the heritage of history and culture....

Yet before he patented my passport details, I was already a well-known writer.... I had published about twenty books. I had written monographs and fifty scholarly articles....

As K. Marx put it... There is no crime that capital will not commit for a profit of 300%. Something like that, I think.

I see it differently. In S. Derevyanko's act there is plain meanness and baseness.

Naturally, I got my first name, patronymic and surname back. There was a hearing at the "Patent Chamber", to which I brought my passport, books, articles and so on.

And the decision of the "Patent Chamber" was as follows...

The verbal designation EVGENY EVGENYEVICH SUKHOV cannot be a trademark, because it is part of the heritage of history and culture of the Russian Federation.

So there!

I know that copyright specialists, studying my court materials, wrote scholarly articles for the VAK and even defended candidate's and doctoral dissertations.

My "butting of heads" with Derevyanko was well known in the publishing world. His reputation was undermined, and with it his business. And if at the start of our cooperation he was among the five strongest publishers in Russia, later he dropped out even of the top twenty!

Having handed the novel "The Treasurer of the Obshchak" over to the publishing house "EKSMO", I wandered around Moscow for a bit and then set off on the way back.

Two and a half hours remained before the departure of my "Moscow-Kazan" train.

Quite enough time to stroll along the book stalls and look at my books that had come out in recent days.

In just the last couple of months, the publishing house "AST-Press", namely its general director S. Derevyanko, had put out some eight of my books in a print run of about 300,000 copies. As the author, I got nothing from these books. Not a kopeck. So I did not feel any special joy.

What, besides ordinary greed, drives S. Derevyanko to such acts? Probably a desire to spoil my life, to destroy me as a writer. Which is more: the first or the second? I think greed is the bigger part, accounting for about 80%.

The newly published books are best looked at in Leningradsky Station. It somehow feels closer to home, and they put out more books.

I walked through the underpass. I came out at the book stalls.

There were many books, mine among them. Among which lay the book "The Safecracker". I picked it up and looked at it. Print run 250 thousand copies. Not a little..... The print run of "The Safecracker" alone approaches 400 thousand. It was the last book I handed over to "AST-Press". I did not receive a kopeck for it.

I copied down the details of the published book, its print run, and moved on.

What else could be there?.... Aha, the novel "I Am a Thief in Law". In total, the print run of this book approaches one million. And this particular "batch", which I only now learned of, came out in 50,000 copies.

Of course S. Derevyanko has no intention of reporting additional print runs, because he doesn't pay authors. I went up to the next stall: again "The Safecracker", but a different print run, plus the novels "At Large" and "Wall to Wall". The print run of each novel is 35 thousand copies. I copied down the details of the books. Additional print runs which I only now learned of.

To be continued

I bought up my books that had been published in violation of copyright and went on to the next book stall...

The seller, who had been watching me closely all this time, suddenly asked:

"Aren't you the writer Evgeny Sukhov?"

He could not have recognised me; my photograph was not on the covers at that time. It seems the lad's intuition kicked in.

"Yes. Evgeny Sukhov," I admitted.

The lad held out one of my books to me and said:

"Could you sign a book for me?"

I take the book, open it to the title page (only the author may sign on this page) and ask:

"What is your name?"

"Gena."

"And your patronymic?"

"No need for a patronymic."

I slap my palms against my pockets looking for a pen. No pen. Where could I have put it? The cobbler without boots!

The seller understands what the matter is:

"Take mine," and he hands me a ballpoint pen.

I write on the title page: "In fond memory, to Gennady from the author". I put the date, and sign.

"And could you sign a book for my friend too?" he holds out another novel.

"What is your friend's name?"

"Valera."

I sign the second book as well.

To be continued