Mian Mian vs. Google China
The Financial Times reports that Mian Mian is suing Google China:
Mian Mian, a 39-year-old author from Shanghai whose realistic descriptions of life with drugs and among prostitutes, gangsters and failed artists, has attracted a large following of young readers, is suing Google for alleged copyright infringement. Sun Jingwei, her lawyer, told the Financial Times that the Haidian People’s Court in Beijing would start hearings on December 29.
Mian Mian filed her complaint on October 23. The author demands that Google apologises for scanning part of her works, deletes the scanned content from its digital library and pays her Rmb60,000 ($8,800) in compensation...
More links:
New York Times: Chinese Writer Sues Google China
China Daily: Writer Sues Google for Copyright Infringement
Comments
What a double standard!
Her books -- like most printed in China -- are available for free all over the web in Chinese.
Her suing Google reminds me of the authorities accusing McDonald's in Guangdong of not paying their China employees overtime; you'd be hard put to find any factory in Guangdong that even keeps records of overtime work, much less pays for it...
Bruce, December 20, 2009, 9:45a.m.
Well, I'll start by pointing out how atrocious the McDonald's argument is. How terrible those Chinese workers are, when McDonald's was just trying to make an honest buck, eh? Just like when Wal-Mart abuses illegal immigrants in California-- at least they aren't getting paid in pesos, am I right?
Lawsuits aren't the best forum for presenting reasoned, nuanced arguments about who owns cultural products, but I agree with Mian Mian more than I disagree with her.
The difference between Google and whatever website puts up a Mian Mian short story is that Google is an actual company that, you know, could make an actual profit off of her work. How much are the people running all those lo-fi online book sites making? I'm still waiting for millionbooks.com's IPO. I gotta say I dig the idea of hundreds of lo-fi websites with trashy banner ads pirating novels more than I like the idea of Google throwing Mian Mian enough money to buy a cheeseburger and putting her stuff online.
I think the model that Sina and other people use is cool, too. Read half the book, then pay a fee to get the rest. It seems to be working well enough and making enough money for people like Sina. I hope writers are getting paid off it, too.
I'd also like to mildly challenge the idea that Mian Mian's books are "all over the web." I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong here but, after a quick search, I could only find one of Mian Mian's novels online (《糖》).
DylanK, December 20, 2009, 11:17a.m.