Baidu removes 2,8 million literary works - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo

In an effort to resolve a high-profile spat with Chinese authors on piracy, the country's leading search engine Baidu removed 2,8 million filles, told company spokesman Kaiser Kuo the BBC, hoping this action would create enough good faith.
More than 40 authors and publishers had accused Baidu that its literary platform, Baidu Wenku was greatly infringing on their copyrights by publishing without their permission. Negotiations about a deal fell flat last week.
The BBC:

"By Tuesday afternoon we had removed almost 2.8 million files, mainly from the Literary Works section of the site, which was the primary concern of the writers and publishers," Baidu spokesperson Kaiser Kuo told the BBC..

"Now that we've scrubbed the site, we hope our good faith action will be a good, solid foundation for future co-operation," Mr Kuo said.
"One thing that this whole episode has amply demonstrated is that Baidu Library is very powerful distribution platform that can be put to very good and profitable use by the authors and publishers in cooperation with Baidu, to the benefit of all parties, especially the readers," he added.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

Related articles

• Is Baidu doing the right thing on intellectual property rights? (chinaherald.net)
• Baidu Removes Millions Of Pirated Works, Seeks Pact With Authors (blogs.forbes.com)
• Baidu's Online Library Shrinks Following Piracy Cleanup (pcworld.com)
• Most-sought speakers in April 2011 (chinaherald.net)

All foreign books to be banned in China? - Bill Dodson

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Bill Dodson

Celebrity author Bill Dodson just discovered by accident that his succesful book China Inside Out has been taken off the shelves of a book store in Suzhou. It might be the start of more, he reports at his weblog. In the end all foreign books might be banned in China.

China Inside Out apparently caught the attention of the Fahrenheit 451 brigade in Suzhou. I’d gone down to the local branch of the Bookworm this past Sunday to kick-off a Royal Asiatic Society author’s talk on Edmund Backhouse’s Decadence Mandchoue, as bawdy an historical narrative as one will ever find. A friend at the shop told me my book had caused a bit of a stir a few days before with the local F451. I thought he was kidding.
The proprietor confirmed after the Decadence talk that, indeed, F451 had been to the shop, saw the nice little display for the book set up at the front bar; and politely asked that the book be removed. In all fairness, it’s not the first time the shop has been targeted. And it won’t be the last time, either. Apparently, F451 will shortly be requiring ALL books written by foreigners be taken down from the shelves.
Regime change has central and local authorities more brittle than at any time in twenty years.
The country just can’t seem to break out of some cycles.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him (and his books) at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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