Google Accused of Violating Copyright In China 247
angry tapir writes "The Chinese Authors Society has demanded that Google present a resolution plan by the end of the year and quickly handle compensation for Chinese authors whose books the US company has scanned without permission as part of its Book Search program. A local copyright protection group, co-founded by the authors group, has said it found at least 17,000 Chinese works included in Google's scanning plan."
Re:It doesn't go both ways (Score:4, Informative)
Do the Chinese even use Google much? I thought the most popular search engine there was Baidu [baidu.com]. In fact, I seem to recall that China redirected Google to Baidu at least once.
Re:Copywrong. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:In other news (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know about you, but I do not read or speak Cantonese or Mandarin (if that is what that was) and thus found it difficult to figure out what is what on that site.
You also seem to not know how to use an internet translator...
Regardless, I didn't see Britney Spears or anyone even remotely non-asian on that website (the lil' pictures) so I have to assume it is all Chinese music.
Oh really? What about the section titled " [Japan and South Korea Pop]" or another titled " [Europe and the United States Songs]"? Also, turns out Britney Spears is listed as #5 under "[Europe and the United States singers]", you just didn't bother to mouse over the tabs. China only cares about copyright violation only when they're the ones on the losing end, but this is nothing new.
On a side note, I wonder how much the US national debt is compared to the total amount of software, music and movies China has pirated over the years. Both would astronomical, but are we talking Pluto, or Alpha Centauri?
P.S. mod grandparent [debile] up, blatant hypocrisy is blatant.
coordinated with obama visit (Score:3, Informative)
If the US wishes to preach the consequences of being on the world stage, China has a habit of coming right back at you.
A good example was a visit to New Zealand by the Chinese president a couple years back. NZ joined the chorus of mentioning Human Rights. Just before the visit China asked the question, so how were our immigrants coming to NZ treated?
For chinese coming to NZ:
- Thumb prints for chinese, yet no other nationality.
- Chinese people were deprived of the old age pension
- A poll tax of $100...just for chinese.
- Formal oraganisations, while not governmental, such as the Anti-Asiatic League
The governemt of New Zealand then felt compeled to issue a formal apology. Those that cast stones in glass houses....
Re:Is this really about copyright? (Score:5, Informative)
You clearly don't know your 18th century American or European history.
America built its textile industry, and indeed its prominence in the Industrial Revolution, only by flagrantly violating the patents of established European countries, especially those of Britain (and Scotland [wikipedia.org], the Silicon Valley of the day). In fact, the blatant colonial-day flouting of patent law and the use of "industrial espionage" (i.e. brain drain) against Britain was actually a significant pain point in the years leading into America's Revolutionary War [wikipedia.org], and tangentially figured into Britain's enthusiasm for the War of 1812.
(Copyrights were violated as well, but weren't considered as important at the time. Copyright itself was still crawling out of the cradle and unfamiliar to many — the first modern copyright law, the Statute of Anne, was passed only at the start of that century in 1709. At that point in time, copyright wasn't considered an economic engine, the way that patents were.)