Online authors open new chapter in IP battle

China's "cyberspace writers" are banding together to urge media companies to improve their pay and working conditions, and to ensure that they retain legal ownership of their work. Li Yang reports from Chengdu.

"Do you have any stories to tell? My brain needs recharging," Jiang Xiaodong said to his roommate, his eyes bloodshot, as he squashed a cigarette butt into an overflowing ashtray next to his stained keyboard.

Since he graduated in 2010, Jiang, who has a postgraduate degree in journalism from the Communication University of China in Beijing, has worked as a "cyberspace author", living in a rented room close to the school in the capital's eastern suburbs.