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Google apologizes to Chinese authors for book scanning A group in China has demanded compensation for writers whose books Google scanned without permission
(By Owen Fletcher - 12 Jan 2010) BEIJING, 11 JANUARY 2010 - Google has apologized to a Chinese authors' group over its scanning of books by local writers into an online search system, moving to defuse copyright concerns around the project in China.
The Chinese Writers Association posted a copy of the Google statement on its Web site on Sunday. On the same day Erik Hartmann, an Asia-Pacific representative of Google Books, delivered the apology in a news program aired by China's state broadcaster.
China is one of several countries, including the U.S. and France, where Google's digital library program has faced legal challenges. The apology comes after the Chinese group demanded that Google compensate local authors whose works the U.S. search giant scanned without their approval.
Google is scanning hundreds of thousands of books, often without prior permission from their rights holders, so they can be searched and previewed on the Google Books service.
Google acknowledged in the statement that it had scanned books by Chinese writers and said the company would no longer do so without local authors' permission. It also said it hopes to reach a general agreement over resolving the tensions by March and to sign a final agreement in the second quarter.
"Due to different starting notions and different understandings of the copyright law systems in China and the U.S., our behavior has caused discontent among Chinese writers," the statement said. "Our communication with Chinese authors has not been good enough. Google is willing to apologize to Chinese authors for this behavior."
Google has held talks with a local copyright protection group over the book service. One Chinese author, Shanghai-based Mian Mian, has brought a copyright infringement lawsuit against Google for scanning her novel Acid Lover and showing portions of it online.
A Google spokeswoman said Google Books complies with U.S. and Chinese law and that the company only shows snippets of copyright books for which it does not have permission from rights holders. Authors and publishers can choose to exclude their works from the service, she said.
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Google threatens to quit China over cyberattacks(By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 1/12/2010)Google threatened Tuesday to shut down its operations in China after uncovering what it said were "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists.Google said China-based cyber spies struck the Internet giant and at least 20 other firms to track activities of activists around the world.
Google said it will no longer filter Internet search engine results in China and the online espionage has it reconsidering its business operations there.
"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered -- combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the Web -- have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China," Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post.
"We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all."
Drummond said Google realizes that defying Chinese government demands regarding filtering Internet search engine results may mean having to shut down its operations in China.
Google said it detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on its corporate infrastructure in mid-December that resulted in the theft of intellectual property. Drummond said the attack originated in China.
Evidence indicated that the attackers were trying to get access to Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, according to Drummond.
Google believes the attack was mostly blocked and that only minor information, like creation dates and subject lines, were stolen from two accounts.
At least 20 other large companies including finance, Internet, media, technology, and chemical businesses were similarly attacked, according to Google.
"We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant US authorities," Drummond said.
Google said its investigation revealed that accounts of dozens of China human rights activists that use Gmail in Europe, China, or the United States have been "routinely accessed" using malware sneaked onto their computers.
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Google may quit China over activist attacks(By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 1/13/2010)Google has vowed to defy Chinese Internet censors and risk banishment from the lucrative market in outrage at "highly sophisticated" cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists.China-based cyber spies struck the Internet giant and at least 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of activists around the world, according to Google.
The online espionage has Google reconsidering its business operations in China and it said it will no longer filter Internet search engine results in that country.
"These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered -- combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the Web -- have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China," Google chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post.
"We are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all," he said.
Drummond said Google realizes that defying Chinese government demands regarding filtering Internet search engine results may mean having to shut down its operations in China.
Human rights activists hailed Google, voicing hope it would lead Western companies to reconsider their compromises in doing business in China.
"Through international pressure, finally a big business in the West has come to realize its own conscience," prominent Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who spent 18 years in prison before entering exile in the United States, told AFP.
T. Kumar, the Washington-based advocacy director of Amnesty International, urged other Internet companies to follow Google's lead.
"We're glad that at last international Internet companies are waking up to the reality that they cannot go along with oppressive nations like China," Kumar said. Related article: Rights activists elated
Leslie Harris, president of US-based nonprofit advocacy group Center for Democracy & Technology, said Google had taken "a bold and difficult step for Internet freedom in support of fundamental human rights."
Google said it detected in mid-December "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google."
The company said it was notifying at least 20 other large companies of similar attacks including finance, Internet, media, technology, and chemical firms.
Google said its investigation revealed that accounts of China human rights activists who use Gmail in Europe, China or the United States have been "routinely accessed" using malware sneaked onto their computers.
Google believes the attack was mostly blocked and that only minor information, like creation dates and subject lines, was stolen from two accounts.
"We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech," Drummond said.
"The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences," he added.
Google was careful to stress that the decision was made by the California company's executives in the United States and not by workers within easy reach of authorities in China.
"Google was in a no-win situation," Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle told AFP. "The choices they've got are all bad, but this one allows them to claim the high ground at home by standing up to evil China."
Internet firms interested in access to China's booming market have been pressured to acquiesce to "onerous" government rules regarding online censorship, according to the analyst.
"China is a hard market to walk away from," Enderle said. "It took a lot of guts. Capitulating wasn't working, so taking a harder stance might work better."
Google said it has used information gained from studying the attack to improve the Internet titan's security.
"We have been working hard to secure our systems, confirm the facts, and notify the relevant authorities," said Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker.
"We've gone public with this as quickly as we sensibly could."
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