Top 10 Chinese cultural events of 2012
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 27, 2012
Writers win over Baidu for copyright infringement
Dust settled on Sept. 17, 2012, when three popular Chinese writers won a copyright infringement lawsuit against search engine Baidu.
Han Han and two other writers, Hao Qun and Han Ailian, sued Baidu over its online library, Wenku, claiming the site offered their works for free without permission. Although judges at Haidian District People's Court supported their claim, the trio received a total of just 173,000 yuan in damages and reasonable expenses, far lower than they were asking.
The ruling stated that Baidu was at fault because it had waited for the authors to contact its staff about their work, instead of taking measures to prevent piracy by users.
In March 2011, more than 40 writers, including Han, signed a letter saying the online library provided their works for free download without their permission. Four months later, Han and several others established the Writers' Union to appeal to Baidu, aiming to protect their online copyrights.
On Nov. 29, 2012, Baidu met with many writers and publishers for the first time ever to discuss anti-piracy measures. Baidu said it will create a digital copyright cooperation model and give revenue to writers and publishers, and will also open an uploading channel for copyright owners and block piracy websites. The new relationship between these longtime adversaries remains to be seen.
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