Progress in copyright talks with Google
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Representatives of the Chinese Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) said talks with Google about copyright issues are progressing well.
During the third round of talks on Friday, Google handed over a list of more than 80,000 Chinese books that were scanned for its Digital Library.
However, Zhang Hongbo, deputy director-general of CWWCS didn't think the number was accurate.
"It must be higher as books published before 1987 were not included and many of their copyrights have not expired," he told the Global Times.
Google is expected to obtain authorization from CWWCS to use books published in China after further talks.
Erik Hartmann, the Asia- Pacific head of Google Books, will move to Beijing from Singapore as a permanent representative.
Zhang said he's working to win fair rights not just for the society's 2,000 members but to raise the awareness against copyright infringements.
"First we want Google to admit their mistake and apologize, then we can talk about compensation," Zhang said.
"At the same time, we don't want Google to give up China in its digital library project."
The issue divided Google. Some insisted that they didn't violate writers' rights, some showed understanding for the writers' complaints.
Google did not violate copyrights as it only put abstracts of Chinese books online instead of full texts, and they didn't use them for profit, Hartmann told the Xinhua News Agency earlier.
However, Zhang said it was against the law once Google scanned the books and disseminated them.
CWWCS asked Google to offer a list of books it scanned in the second round held on November 20, which it refused in the first talk on November 2.
The fourth round of negotiations will start in January.
Google offered in October that they pay $60 for each scanned book as compensation and 63 percent of income from online reading in the US for further use, which many Chinese writers refused.
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