Chinese writers band together to act against sellers of their work
By Wang Qingchu and Zhu Shenshen |
July 7, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE writers and publisher are banding together to sue companies, including Apple Inc and Baidu Inc, who sell or using their work without permission.
An alliance initiated by five writers, including Han Han, a best-selling novelist and a popular and outspoken blogger, and five publishers was established in Beijing earlier this week to help Chinese writers fight copyright infringements.
Many Chinese books on Apple's App Store don't have permission from the copyright owners, Bei Zhicheng, operator of the alliance, told The Beijing Times newspaper. The potential loss for these authors could be as much as 1 billion yuan (US$155 million), he said.
Although Baidu vowed to clear its site of unauthorized works by Chinese writers in March, there were still many unlicensed ones on its Wenku system, Bei said. "The goal of the alliance is to completely eliminate copyright infringement in China," he said.
With an initial fund of more than 3 million yuan raised from individual donations, the alliance will represent authors in legal action against copyright violations. It has already signed agreements with 30 authors to represent them.
The alliance will return 80 percent of any compensation to writers if they win lawsuits and keep 20 percent for working funds. The fund is in the process of collecting evidence and may launch lawsuits against "big-name" violators in a month or two, Bei said.
Apple China declined to comment yesterday while Baidu officials were unavailable.
The high cost of pursuing a lawsuis has deterred many writers from safeguarding their rights as often the compensation they would win wouldn't be enough to cover the legal costs, Bei said.
The alliance, which will help writers save money, time and energy in legal procedures, is expected to file more than 100 lawsuits a year, Bei told the newspaper.
Baidu, China's biggest search engine, deleted nearly 3 million unauthorized works of literature, or more than 99 percent of the material in the literature category previously freely available on its Wenku system in March after Chinese writers and publishers launched an online campaign claiming the file-sharing platform infringed their copyrights.
"People have to gather together to take legal action against companies like Apple," said Sun Xiangyuan, a Shanghai-based lawyer.
Sun is representing Zhu Jintai, a Hunan Province-based writer, in a lawsuit against Apple after his novel "Vampire Notes," or "Gan Shi Bi Ji" was sold at US$2.99 per download from Apple's online store since November 2010 without his permission.
Zhu asked for compensation for 50,000 yuan and an apology from Apple. But the lawsuit is expected to cost "several dozen thousand yuan," which means he won't get much money if he wins, Sun said.
Zhu's case is expected to be heard in Shanghai but a date is not yet known.
An alliance initiated by five writers, including Han Han, a best-selling novelist and a popular and outspoken blogger, and five publishers was established in Beijing earlier this week to help Chinese writers fight copyright infringements.
Many Chinese books on Apple's App Store don't have permission from the copyright owners, Bei Zhicheng, operator of the alliance, told The Beijing Times newspaper. The potential loss for these authors could be as much as 1 billion yuan (US$155 million), he said.
Although Baidu vowed to clear its site of unauthorized works by Chinese writers in March, there were still many unlicensed ones on its Wenku system, Bei said. "The goal of the alliance is to completely eliminate copyright infringement in China," he said.
With an initial fund of more than 3 million yuan raised from individual donations, the alliance will represent authors in legal action against copyright violations. It has already signed agreements with 30 authors to represent them.
The alliance will return 80 percent of any compensation to writers if they win lawsuits and keep 20 percent for working funds. The fund is in the process of collecting evidence and may launch lawsuits against "big-name" violators in a month or two, Bei said.
Apple China declined to comment yesterday while Baidu officials were unavailable.
The high cost of pursuing a lawsuis has deterred many writers from safeguarding their rights as often the compensation they would win wouldn't be enough to cover the legal costs, Bei said.
The alliance, which will help writers save money, time and energy in legal procedures, is expected to file more than 100 lawsuits a year, Bei told the newspaper.
Baidu, China's biggest search engine, deleted nearly 3 million unauthorized works of literature, or more than 99 percent of the material in the literature category previously freely available on its Wenku system in March after Chinese writers and publishers launched an online campaign claiming the file-sharing platform infringed their copyrights.
"People have to gather together to take legal action against companies like Apple," said Sun Xiangyuan, a Shanghai-based lawyer.
Sun is representing Zhu Jintai, a Hunan Province-based writer, in a lawsuit against Apple after his novel "Vampire Notes," or "Gan Shi Bi Ji" was sold at US$2.99 per download from Apple's online store since November 2010 without his permission.
Zhu asked for compensation for 50,000 yuan and an apology from Apple. But the lawsuit is expected to cost "several dozen thousand yuan," which means he won't get much money if he wins, Sun said.
Zhu's case is expected to be heard in Shanghai but a date is not yet known.
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