Rare China copyright case
p2pnet news | Freedom:- Seven well-known Chinese writers are suing a Beijing site for alleged copyright infringement.
It’s the second case of its kind since ex-culture minister Wang Meng won a 1999 lawsuit over another IT company for similar violations, says Beijing Youth Daily, quoted by China View.
“Li Mingsheng, Zhang Kangkang, Zhang Ping, Lu Yuegang, Wang Hongjia, Qiu Huadong and Xu Kunlian, all winners of national literary awards, accused Beijing Sursen Electronic Technology Company of using their masterpieces on its website without paying them,” says the story.
“They claimed about 1.6 million yuan (213,000 U.S. dollars) in compensation.
Representing the other writers, Li said in 2006, “he stumbled upon 11 of his own works on the website, www.du8.com,” owned and operated by Sursen, says the story, going on:
“Li said after direct contacts with the company, it acknowledged copyright infringement and agreed to compensation. However no compensation has been made, Li said.
“Li, a writer with a military background and best known for his military novels, said he conducted investigations himself in the following year and found Sursen has scanned literary works of many Chinese writers. He alleged that Sursen had illegally pasted them on its website, which charges for online reading.”
He alleges the company also produced CD-ROMs and sold them to libraries and archives nationwide, says Beijing Youth Daily.”
All seven writers refused out-of-court settlements, instead retaining the unnamed intellectual property attorney who in 1999 helped writer-turned culture minister Wang Meng and six other writers achieve a symbolic copyright infringement win against a Beijing website, says the story, adding:
“Although copyright violations are widespread, only a few people resort to legal processes because they are time consuming and sometimes expensive.”
Also See:
China View – Award-winning Chinese writers sue website for copyright infringement, December 13, 2007
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