Copyright wrongs

The growing popularity of e-books has also spurred a growth in copyright piracy by many Chinese websites, according to a recent study by the Chinese Book Business Report Group and Du8.com a Chinese online e-book provider.

The country's e-book industry is experiencing rapid growth. In 2007 alone, the number of e-book readers in China increased 37 percent from a year before to around 59 million who gained access to online books through their computers, mobile phones and other electronic communication devices.

The number of e-books carried by various websites have shot up from 530,000 in 2006 to 660,000 last year, up 24.5 percent, according to a report, entitled "China's growing tendency for e-book industry", released by the Chinese Book Business Report Group and Du8.com.

But the growth has been marred by what appears to be a flagrant disregard for copyrights by many website hosts, says the report.

Though domestic book publishers have been making efforts - such as lawsuits - to deal with the copyright piracy, it has not had success and "book copyright infringement is still serious in China", says the report.

According to the report, among China's 1,425 websites providing free or paid e-book services, only 4.49 percent, or 64 websites' contents are original. And another 15 percent of the websites carry authorized works by authors and publishers, and pay a copyright fee to the authors.

"It seems to be a fledgling market, and many consumers remain skeptical about online services," a spokesman from China's Yilin publishing, one of China's professional paper-based publishers, tells China Business Weekly.

The spokesman, who asked not to be named, adds that there is a hitch when they consider cooperating with online communities to promote e-book business - whether the Internet publication will respect the author's copyright. "Some websites often put authors' works on the Internet without their permission," he notes.

A recent lawsuit has drawn public attention to the controversy. The dispute was triggered when Chineseall.com, one of the country's largest e-book providers found 40 of its e-books were copied and provided to readers for free on Tiantongwang.com without authorization.

From 2004 to 2006, noted Chinese authors such as Wang Xiaoping, Yu Qiuyu, Hai Yan and Chi Li, signed agreements with Chineseall.com to authorize it to upload some of their works.

In June this year, Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court ruled in favor of Chineseall.com ordered Tiantongwang.com to pay 200,000 yuan to Chineseall.com in compensation.

Yet, because "easy-copying is the main characteristic of Internet publications, it has caused more and more copyright infringing lawsuits in recent years," says Zhang Ruiqiang, general manager of the Internet business department of Chineseall.com.

Zhang points out the fast growing e-book market among larger websites has spurred intense competition in China's e-book industry and made the market more attractive to smaller websites who lack access to large publishers and decide to upload books without permission.

Adds Zhao Bing, an expert of China's Institute of Publishing Science:"Another reason for the growing number of e-book's copyright infringement is that some medium and small-sized websites find it hard to get access to provide legal e-books."

Despite difficulties, it there is also speculation that the e-book industry may be the profitable future of traditional books, considering there is no need for paper, printing, distribution, transportation, or warehouse costs.

"Publishers and readers are clearly getting interested in e-books," says Zhang, adding that the long-term trend of e-book business will see more websites profit from the sector.

For example, after Sina.com, one of the country's largest online communities, started its e-book business it became profitable by charging to download to e-books.

Since April this year, Sina.com gained over 70,000 yuan from its e-book business. One hundred thousand online subscribers registered and the website partnered with more than 37 publishers and had access to 1,000 e-books.

Statistics show that the increasing numbers of e-book readers contribute over 45 million yuan to the e-book sellers in 2007, 2.26 times to the number in 2006, according to "China's growing tendency for e-book industry".

The report makes an optimistic prediction that the legal e-book industry could see a 200 million yuan in sales by the end of 2008.

Editor's note: The IPR Special is sponsored by the State Intellectual Property Office and published by China Business Weekly. To contact the Intellectual Property Office, the IPR Special hotlines are 8610-64995422 or 8610-64995826, and the e-mail address is ipr@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 09/01/2008 page9)