Google, Mian Mian, and Revisionism
December 17, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to Computerworld Asia’s “Chinese Author Sues Google over Book Scanning.” I visited China once and learned quickly that figuring out who is on first is tough. This write up is clear enough. An author—the popular Mian Mian—asserts that Google scanned Acid Lover without permission. There are several points in the write up that are fuzzy, maybe even fuzzy:
- The aggrieved author wants US$8,770
- The aggrieved author wants a public apology
- Chinese authors want Google to pay them when their books are scanned for Google Books.
The key revisionist passage for me was:
“Google earlier argued that they didn’t violate copyright law as they only displayed a small amount of text of my book, but I think their move has seriously hurt Chinese writers’ rights,” the paper [China Daily] quoted Mian as saying.
Not fuzzy, certainly wuzzy.
Stephen E. Arnold, December 17, 2009
Quick confession. This is a freebie. I wish I could get paid in yuan. I will contact the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission to point out this situation..
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