Copyright group demands payment from Google

The China Written Works Copyrights Society wants an apology and compensation for the authors it represents from Google, whom it accuses of illegally scanning and distributing works by thousands of prominent Chinese authors, the South China Morning Post reported. The society collects copyright information on behalf of journalists and authors. Google has scanned hundreds of books by Chinese authors since September that can be viewed for free from its digital library in the US. Google has claimed that under US law it has not violated the author’s copyrights. Copyright law in most countries exempts libraries from reproduction-rights regulations. The copyright group insists that the Chinese authors reproduction rights have been violated and is therefore demanding that Google stop scanning Chinese works without authorization. In a similiar case in 2004 in the US, Google ultimately paid US$60 to the author for each book that was scanned.