The China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) has called on Chinese writers to stand up for their legal rights in the face of Web search giant Google’s proposed book settlement, according to a post published on the official Web site of Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA).
CWWCS claimed to have found copyrighted works written by a number of Chinese writers scanned and posted to Google’s digital library, Google Books.
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A Google spokeswoman said, “Google Books promotes and encourages book sales – helping to ensure that authors and publishers are rewarded for their creative efforts. Our goal remains bringing millions of the world’s difficult-to-find, out-of-print books back to life. … The scope of our U.S. settlement is limited to the U.S. and comes under U.S law and only U.S. readers will benefit. Of course, we listen carefully to all concerns and will work hard to address them.”
A Google FAQ on its book program gave more detail about how compensation works for non-US authors:
“Holders of U.S. copyrights world-wide can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible sources, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized. For example, a foreign author whose book was published outside the U.S. can register with the Book Rights Registry, and receive compensation, if that book is in the collection of a U.S. library from which it was digitized.”
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