Google began to carry out a program to become one of the top of digital libraries in the world in 2004. When announced to the public, the program was criticized by many authors and book publishers. Google encountered class action suits in Europe and the United States. The copyright dispute extended to China. When Google introduced its digital library to China in 2007, most Chinese authors were still unfamiliar with this service. Yet Google uploaded about 18,000 books created by 570 Chinese authors to its digital format without most authors’ knowledge. The China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) claimed that it found some Chinese authors’ copyrighted works scanned and issued by Google’s digital library (Google Books).

 

Regarding Google’s amicable settlement proposal, the Chinese Writers Association (CWA) and CWWCS appealed for Chinese authors to maintain their legitimate rights. In the proposal, Google stated that if authors allowed Google to continue to use their works online, Google would pay compensation to each author in the amount of $60 for each piece of work. In addition, 63 percent of the earnings obtained from readers downloading the work would be given to the original author. Pursuant to the amicable settlement proposal, authors who accept the terms of the proposal should file claims before June 5, 2010. After that date, authors will be considered to have waived their rights to any compensation. Authors who refuse to agree to the terms of the proposal should take action before January 5, 2010.

 

The amicable settlement proposal caused an immediate and strong reaction from Chinese authors. According to one copyright lawyer, Google scanned and issued these books without the authors’ permission, which is a tort. Google provided conciliatory terms in a vain attempt to avoid further litigation and its actions are illegitimate. He stated that Chinese courts would accept copyright suits against Google if the copyright owners sued the company in China.

 

Erik Hartmann, the Google’s chief representative in the Asia-Pacific area, arrived in Beijing at the beginning of November to settle infringement disputes with Chinese copyright authors. He will discuss and communicate with the CWWCS. The head of the CWWCS stated that the discussions would not refer to specific terms of the amicable settlement proposal accepted by China and that the details of the negotiation should be based on Google’s sincerity---Google must admit that it scanned Chinese authors’ works without the authors’ permission, which infringed upon the copyrights for these works. As soon as the CWWCS ascertained Google’s level of sincerity, both sides could discuss future settlements.

 

With respect to the dispute over Google’s alleged copyright infringement, Kangkang Zhang, a famous Chinese author, said that there were dozens of his works in Google’s digital library and that Google had not informed him before scanning and issuing the works. He believed that it was right to share these works and allow more people to be exposed to the knowledge contained within them, but that everyone should respect copyrights.

 

(Source: The Xinhua Net)