By Yusuf Abdol Hami

In a quiet section of Page One bookstore in VivoCity mall, a young man was hiding in a corner, copying content from a Chinese book into his notebook. It is not hard to spot these 'copiers'.

In fact, store director for Books Kinokuniya, Mr Kenny Chan, said incidents of copyright infringement, which include copying out of books, happens on a 'daily basis'.

LifeStyle visited eight major bookstores over three days and found two other instances of customers blatantly copying out of books.

This is an extension of other anti-social behaviour people display in bookstores: ripping out pages, reading entire books in the store and tearing open the plastic wrapping on the books instead of asking store staff to do so.

Some copycats even whip out their digital cameras to photograph pages of books.

At Borders Wheelock, a middle-aged woman was seen sitting in the travel section with a notepad, busily jotting down notes from a book titled Geography Of The World.

The staff there were quick to tell her to stop. But she simply moved to another seat and continued copying once the employee left. She eventually left the store when the duty manager approached her, informing her that her action was against the store's policy.

Over at Kinokuniya's main store in Ngee Ann City, a man was browsing the leadership section with a notebook barely concealed by another book in his hand.

He, too, was copying out of several books in the aisle, with his female companion reading out the information to him. But his behaviour was unobtrusive and an employee who walked by did not notice that he was copying.

When approached, the copycats seemed unrepentant.

Singapore has 24 public libraries but big bookstores in town appear to be more attractive places to find the latest books.

The 'copier' at Kinokuniya, who gave his name as Joseph, said: 'Many of these books are over $40, so I am going to check the reviews on the Internet before buying the best one.'

The middle-aged woman spotted copying out of a geography book at Borders told LifeStyle: 'The books in stores are newer compared to the libraries.'

She declined to be named but said she was bookstore-hopping with her two sisters. She claimed they had lost their jobs and that books are too expensive to buy.

'I love information and I just write down what I see is interesting,' she said, pointing out that there is no sign to say copying is against the rules.

But bookstores said copying from books is not allowed.

Ms Chua Sihui, store manager of Page One in VivoCity, said: 'It involves copyright issues, so customers can take down book details but not the content.'

Others said they do not put up signs as these might make the store seem unfriendly to customers.

Mr Thomas Tan, senior operations manager of Popular Book Company, said: 'If there is any indication of such behaviour, then our staff will approach the customer subtly and explain to him that it is not permitted.'

Books in the travel and cooking sections are more frequently copied from, Ms Chua said.

'Maybe customers already have their own travel guides and are looking for extra information from our books without having to buy them,' she added.

People that LifeStyle spoke to frowned on copying from bookstores' books.

Undergraduate Mark Ngan, 23, said: 'You should resort to that only after you have exhausted every other option and the first place to look would be the library.'

Others felt there was little difference between browsing and copying.

Student Talib Abdul, 24, said: 'Both are more or less the same but browsing requires more memory power.'

For some, it is an issue of personal pride.

'I do not think it is against the rules but it would be very embarrassing to sit in a corner of the bookstore and copy,' said Gladys Wee, 20, a first-year National Institute of Education student.

'It seems like a very cheap thing to do.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.