Hanwang e-reader advertised in Shanghai. Wu Changqing / China Daily

Confusion over ownership rights and lack of content plague the new sector

A recent lawsuit over digital use of books has highlighted the many problems facing writers, publishing houses and new media outlets in China.

Zhonghua Book Co is suing Hanwang Technology Co Ltd claiming pre-installation of ancient books in e-readers violates its copyrights.

Zhonghua's lawsuit, filed in Haidian district court in Beijing, centers around revised editions of the Twenty-Four Histories and the History of the Qing Dynasty.

Hanwang responded that it "feels wronged" by the suit because it already paid 400,000 yuan in royalties to Beijing Guoxue Times Culture Co Ltd, the largest company in China specializing in digitized ancient books and documents.

The case shows the confused situation for digital copyrights in the Chinese e-reader market.

DisplaySearch, a US market analysis firm, recently estimated that China will have 3 million e-readers this year, about 20 percent of the global total, Xinhua.com reported.

Enormous potential profits in the rising industry are encouraging many traditional publication houses to launch their own e-readers.

But "a common obstacle for domestic e-reader makers is a shortage of content caused by a bottleneck in digital copyrights", China Intellectual Property Magazine quoted Zhang Hongbo, deputy director general of China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS), as saying.

"The manufacturers try to get authorized books through varied channels, but even those bought from special digital libraries may cause trouble," Zhang said.