Google scanned 80,000 Chinese titles

Google's digital library project, which scans books without authorization, has caused controversy all over the world,and its no exception in China. The internet search giant has provided a list of thousands of Chinese texts it scanned, including works by leading writers and scholars. Let's take a closer look.

The China Written Works Copyright Society has held 3 rounds of talks with Google.

During the second round, the Society demanded a list of the Chinese titles that had been digitized, by the third round, Google had complied.

The list revealed more than 80-thousand texts had been scanned and put online without authorization from copyright holders.

Zhang Hongbo, dep. director-general of China Written Works Copyright Society, said, "Upon receiving the list, we spent hours examining and checking the titles. We found that the books included works of almost all leading writers, scholars, and academics of China. It's quite extensive."

The list is believed to be far from complete. According to the Society it only includes titles published since 1987, when China adopted the ISBN system.

It's requested Google provide a more accurate, complete list, which will be essential for future settlements or legal proceedings.