Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Chinese author to sue Google Books for copyright infringement

Mian Mian intends to file suit this week against Google, claiming copyright infringement after discovering that her third book, "Acid Lovers," was scanned by Google as part of its book digitization project, according to AFP. The suit would be the first filed against Google in China over the Google Books project, which itself is no stranger to the courtroom. Legal battles over Google's U.S. settlement with authors and publishers will stretch into 2010, nearly 15 months after Google first reached an agreement with those groups to allow it to continue scanning out-of-print but copyright-protected works. Google is the only organization with explicit permission to scan that type of book, which it has been doing since 2005 while claiming that fair-use laws permit such activity. (The rules governing its ability to display to that kind of book in Google Books are more convoluted.)

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Google Books is costing Google a fortune! The recent settlement agreements don't apply in China and may yet be changed again in February. Do you use Google Books?

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Permalink Reply by Viviana Arteaga on December 31, 2009 at 12:40pm

umm no I didnt know it did that...and I use google alot..well for searchin heehee
But that is very interestin!

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Permalink Reply by scribbler on January 1, 2010 at 12:46am

The next time you go to Google, Vivi, look at the top row where you'll see Web Images Videos Maps News Shopping Mail more ▼ . Click on more and then "even more". Google's got far more under the hood than plain search. :) I don't browse around Google Books often because I can lose myself for hours in the books and magazines.

Viviana Arteaga said:

umm no I didnt know it did that...and I use google alot..well for searchin heehee
But that is very interestin!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on January 11, 2010 at 1:31am

I don't and I should because it's a waste not to. The challenge of policing anything regarding copyright on the Internet is this. There's no international agreements on how to approach it. I read about there being some behind the scenes moves to address that. My brain's foggy on the details. Various countries are interested in signing up for new legislation that lays down international laws and boundaries which is all being kept quiet.