Chinese government investigating Baidu for copyright infringement of books

China’s National Copyright Administration (NCA) is investigating Baidu for copyright infringement of books, said Wang Chih-cheng, deputy director for Copyright Management of NCA.

On March 15, fifty of Chinese well-known authors wrote a public letter, claiming Baidu Wenku (or Baidu Libary), one of Baidu’s services which allows users to read free e-book online, infringes their copyrights.  The letter is widely circulated in Sina Weibo (or Twitter in China).

They said, just like Baidu’s free MP3 download hurt the music industry, Baidu library is also killing the future of Chinese book authors.   In the long run, there will be no new books to read.

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