Chinese copyright group weighs in on Google digital library

The China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) is the latest in a string of domestic and international groups to criticize Google’s effort to create a digital library. While it hails from a country that flippantly enforces international copyrights, the group is the first Chinese entity to publicly criticize the Google project and also encourages drastic domestic reform to quell piracy. Concerned with unauthorized digital scanning and Internet distribution, the CWWCS is encouraging authors to search for their works as part of the ongoing United States settlement.

In response, Google has issued two statements. Having initially and unsatisfactorily noted that it will, “we will carefully listen to and try to find solutions,” the company elaborated on Thursday, stating,

We also have some Chinese books that have been scanned by our Book Search library partners; in those cases, we only make the books available as a short snippet of text–as we do with web search–unless the rightsholder authorizes a greater use. We also honor rightsholders’ preferences if they ask not to be included.

More from AP, WSJ and CWWCS.