A group of Chinese authors are angry and accusing Google of digitizing their books without permission or payment. The authors' right group says that Google has violated their copyrights, which Google denies. Google says it has complied with international law.
The China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) believes Google scanned thousands of books, by over 500 Chinese authors, into its digital library without their permission or compensation, said spokesman Chen Qirong.
"Whether you are a small company or big company you still need to respect the copyright of the authors," Chen said.
Google countered by saying it had received permission from over 50 Chinese publishers who allowed the U.S. search giant to digitize more than 30,000 books to be found through Internet searches and for preview.
"We believe the book search complies with international copyright law," said Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne.
Google.com, Gmail and other Google services are not currently available in much of China because the government says Google spreads obscene content over the Internet. Meanwhile, the Chinese government does virtually nothing to stop the theft of non-Chinese authors' works which are republished in China without payment or permission. Remember all the bizarre incarnations of the Harry Potter series that were sold all over China?
As for the Chinese authors, well, they're having a tough time. The Chinese government still actively censors their work and it is dangerous to write about things of which the government does not approve.
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