Publish And Be Damned: Baidu in Hot Water?

Chinese internet superpower Baidu has been feeling the heat from Chinese authors claiming that the site is stealing their work. In this AFP article on Google it is stated that over 40 writers, including the blogger Han Han, have signed a letter "claiming Baidu provided their works for free to download on its online library Baidu Wenku without their permission."

Baidu responded through spokesman Kaiser Kuo, who said the search engine "attaches great importance to intellectual property rights protection" and had deleted "tens of thousands of infringing items" uploaded by web users.

In short, Baidu say that the users bear responsibility and when the company sees an infringement of its own rules then it removes the content, whereas the writers say that they don't blame the users but instead the platform and Baidu is benefitting from their work. We say we don't know what'll happen but as victims of Baidu Wenku we were cool with it - we are a free magazine, after all - but we're not sure how our esteemed columnist Mr. Kuo is feeling about his book being on there. Especially as it is mistakenly retitled as Ich Bin Ein Berliner.

Don't hold your breath for a speedy resolution.