Chinese author files lawsuit against Google

Mian Mian, a popular Chinese author, has sued Google, alleging that it has scanned her third book, ‘Acid Lovers’, under its digitalization projects, leading to copyright infringement.

On the other hand, Google spokesperson told Associated Press that it has removed Mian’s novel from its book scanning project after it learnt that she had filed a lawsuit against it.

The lawsuit is the first one filed against Google in China over its book-scanning project.

Apology demanded from Google
After a two hour hearing Tuesday, the court had ordered both the sides to reach a settlement, but did not set a deadline.

The author is seeking nearly $9,000 as damages with a public apology.

Apart from Mian, the China Written Works Copyright Society has also accused Google of violating copyright law. It claimed that tens of thousands of books by a number of Chinese authors have been added to scanning project.

The society's deputy director-general, Zhang Hongbo was quoted by state-run Global Times newspaper as saying, “First we want Google to admit their mistake and apologise, then we can talk about compensation.”

Objections raised by authors
Besides China, authors and publishers in United States, Germany, France etc have raised concerns over Google’s book scanning project.

Google had reached a $125 million settlement with U.S. authors and publishers over the copyright infringement law suit filed against it in 2005. But the settlement has come under scanner as it would give Google the monopoly to digitize millions of out of print books.

Earlier this month, Google's French book search project suffered a legal setback after a Paris court ruled against the Internet search giant, thus ordering it to scan French works.

Google was ordered to pay damages of 300,000 euros ($430,000; £268,000) and interest to French company La Martiniere, which had filed the lawsuit.