Hi all,
What does Uzbekistan’s first novel, O’tkan Kunlar (Bygone Days) by Abdulla Qodiriy, published in 1926, have to do with the fight for intellectual property rights a century later?
A lot. Its translator from the Uzbek original into English, Mark Reese, has just won a court case against Uzbekistan’s educational institutions, which had mishandled his intellectual property rights by uploading Bygone Days onto several university servers across Uzbekistan.
Reese, who received the Order of Dustlik from President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in 2019 in recognition of his work promoting the Uzbek language, literature, and culture, decided not to let it go. He took the case to court and won but, in his view, has justice truly been served?
This week, Mark Reese is our guest and we’ll talk about the cultural and social significance of Bygone Days, the message it conveyed about the past, present, and future of the region, and the lessons we can draw from it today.
We also discuss his early days as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uzbekistan, his love for Uzbek language and literature, what he thinks about Mirziyoyev’s reforms, and why he decided to fight for his rights in court.
I hope you will enjoy this one.
Have a lovely end of the week,
— Agnieszka
