China Literature assuages rights concerns from authors

Leading online novel portal China Literature said it will introduce new measures to protect the lawful rights of content curators, as the new leadership team hosted a talk with a group of authors 10 days after taking office.

According to a press release from the company, key reforms will be made around copyright and subscription models, which are among the most debated issues among writers.

Regarding copyrights, Edward Cheng, the newly-appointed CEO, affirmed that China Literature will by no means share or obtain the 'moral rights' of the authors, and should grant creators their due rights based on consensual agreements in 'property rights', which includes the adaption for artistic works.

Hou Xiaonan, president of China Literature, said the company will continue to consolidate and boost paid content, and will definitely specify authors' financial benefits when adopting free-reading models in the future.

The leadership also pledged to safeguard authors' benefits and pull in more resources to combat piracy.

Controversies have arisen in the past week among the site's author community over certain contracts that could allegedly grant the platform excessive rights to the content it distributes.