Google admits to scanning books

Google officials yesterday admitted to having scanned more than 20,000 books under Chinese copyright protection.

The world's largest Internet search engine has been in negotiations with China's copyright watchdog for scanning works for its online library without permission.

"They still emphasized the Chinese books they scanned are from US libraries and some of them are available for public use," said Zhang Hongbo, deputy director of the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS), which manages China's copyrights for written works. "But they also admitted at least 20,000 books are still under China's copyright protection."