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November 16, 2009

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Google to talk to Chinese on copyrights

SEARCH engine giant Google is to send a representative to China this week to talk with the country's copyright watchdog to cool down Chinese authors' heated complaints against the company over copyright violations, according to a Google senior executive.

Daniel Alegre, Google's vice president of Asia Pacific Sales & Operations, said yesterday that someone will go to China to "communicate" further with the China Written Works Copyright Society this week.

According to a rough estimate from the CWWCS, nearly 18,000 books from 570 Chinese writers have been scanned by Google and included in its digital library, Google Books, opening only to Internet users in the United States. Most of the writers were not informed nor paid.

"So far, no writers we reached said he or she has authorized Google to do the scanning," said Zhang Hongbo, deputy director-general of the CWWCS.

Daniel said it was understandable that Chinese authors were dissatisfied over the scanning of their works. He said the huge amount of books scanned made it difficult to contact every author.

Internet users will only be able to find the books via Google, not for reading or downloading free of charge, according to Daniel.

Google and copyright organizations submitted a revised settlement agreement on Saturday to a US court. But Daniel said the settlement does not apply to China, meaning Google will have to negotiate with Chinese authors in a separate case.





 

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