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Google in trouble for violating Chinese copyrights | Search engine giant Google is facing accusations that its employees, illegally and without
permission, scanned Chinese writers' works into its digital library, Google Books.
According to a rough estimate from CWWCS, nearly 18,000 books from 570 Chinese
writers have been scanned by Google and included in its digital library, which
is only open to netizens within the US borders. This was done without informing
or paying most of the writers. "Google's infringement to Chinese authors is very
severe," the China Daily quoted Zhang Hongbo, deputy director-general of China
Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS), the only domestic administration of written
works copyrights, as saying. Chinese government departments, such as the National
Copyright Administration, will push the US government to handle the issue properly,
considering Google is such a major force in the online world and has acted arbitrarily
in this issue, he said. "So far, no writer we reached said he or she has authorized
Google to do the scanning," Zhang said. Google has not yet replied to the accusation.
Its spokesman was not available for comment yesterday. Google has been scanning
millions of books under US copyright since 2004. Under a tentative settlement
with US authors and publishers, that will cover all books unless the copyright
holders object. Google is in the final stages of reaching a settlement with two
US copyright organizations, which brought copyright infringement lawsuits against
the search company for its book-scanning project. A US court has given the parties
until early next month to revise their current settlement agreement and ensure
its compliance with antitrust and copyright laws. According to the settlement
offered by Google, authors who accept Google's scan could get 60 dollars per book
as compensation, as well as 63 percent of the income from online reading. Readers
of the books online would pay a fee for digital access to the book. According
to the settlement, if the author rejects Google's right to scan, he or she should
appeal before Jan 5, 2010. Authors should approach Google authorizing the scanning
and get the compensation before June 5, 2010. |
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