[WikiEN-l] Chinese start caring about copyright

[Gwern Branwen]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/technology/internet/31google.html
"Two Chinese writers’ groups claim that Google has scanned Chinese
works into an electronic database in violation of international
copyright standards. The organizations are urging China’s authors to
step forward and defend their rights.

“Google has seriously violated the copyrights of Chinese authors. That
is an undeniable fact,” Chen Qirong, a spokesman for the China
Writers’ Association, said by telephone. The group says it represents
nearly 9,000 writers."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/afc1cfda-d128-11de-b591-00144feabdc0.html
"Under the new settlement, works will only be included in the
ambitious digital project if they have been registered in the US, or
come from the UK, Australia and Canada – countries which have
“contributed the largest number of English-language works to American
libraries,” according to the parties to the settlement. The
similarities in their legal systems and the structure of their
publishing industries made it appropriate for these countries to be
included, according to the backers of the settlement.

The changes will mean that 95 per cent of all foreign works will no
longer be included in Google’s digital book archive, said Richard
Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidupedia#Copyright and
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2007/gb20071113_725400.htm
in case anyone has forgotten.)

-- 
gwern