Chinese writers ask Google for higher compensation

The China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) called for Google China to reconsider its compensation, accusing the company of scanning and uploading thousands of books online without writers' permission.

"The Chinese authors should protect their own intellectual property and Google should give us a satisfactory result within the deadline of Dec.31," the CWWCS demanded on its website two days ago. Google China has scanned a long list of popular Chinese books and uploaded some content into its controversial online Book Search program. The company's original plan says it will offer at least $60 USD to each book contributed before June 5, 2010, and will share future revenue with authors from online reading. While Google and copyright organizations did indeed submit a revised settlement plan last Friday to New York court, it did not apply to China. On Nov. 6, a famous Chinese writer named Mian Mian sued Google China for uploading some content of her book "Yan Suan Qing Ren," or "Hydrochloride Lover," to its digital library without her permission, claiming a compensation of 60,000 yuan ($8,786 USD). "It's hard to believe a company as famous as Google could do such things," she told Shanghai local media Eastday. But some other writers who are highly popular among young readers showed empathy for Google. "If its only parts of contents, I don't think it should be considered violation," Han Han said. After a four-hour meeting between Google and the CWWCS in Beijing on Nov. 21, Google denied the infringement accusation but promised to reveal a full list of scanned books by the end of this year.