Online book piracy still an issue in China despite regulatory efforts
Staff Reporter 2013-07-14 10:44 (GMT+8)
Amazon China is one of the country's leading shopping websites. (Photo/CFP)
After recent reports of book piracy, Amazon China has adopted a series of measures to tackle the issue including an overhaul of its operation but the incident only represents the tip of the iceberg as piracy continues to plague China's online publishing market, reports Shanghai's First Financial Daily.
In April this year, Guangxi Normal University Press first uncovered that third-party vendors on Amazon China were selling pirated copies of their publications. While on June 25, Yu Cike, chief of copyright management department at the General Bureau of Press, Publishing, Radio, and TV, summoned Amazon's head of operations in China, Wang Hanhua, and demanded that the company resolve copyright encroachment on its website.
In 2010 alone, online publishers lost 5 billion yuan (US$804 million) from piracy and racked up sales only one fiftieth that of pirated publications. Guangxi Normal University Press discovered that under the tacit tolerance of Amazon China, third-party vendors sold close to 1,000 copies of its books a day, at over a 40% discount compared to their listed prices, the paper said.
Guangxi Normal University Press complained to Amazon China but failed to obtain a satisfactory solution and subsequently stopped providing its publications to the website. An insider said that pirated sales of the university's two books were limited as they are literary works, and the loss is comparatively minor compared with other popular works.
In November 2008, a publishing company sued a vendor and the Zhejiang branch of Taobao, the leading e-commerce website in China, for selling pirated copies of one of its books on the website, asking for compensation of 200,000 yuan (US$32,600). In 2009, the municipal court delivered a verdict demanding the defendants pay the company 2,000 yuan (US$325), a landmark ruling against online sales of pirated publications.
In the face of the rampant online sales of pirated books, a number of renowned Chinese writers including Han Han — a popular Chinese author, blogger and racecar driver — formed a league to protect the right of writers in Beijing, the paper said.
The sales of pirated publications on Amazon China are the first such case attracting the attention of the country's regulator. The General Bureau of Press, Publishing, Radio, and TV discovered that since April this year, large amount of pirated books have appeared on Amazon, involving 36 vendors, 20 books, and sales of over 10,000 yuan (US$1,700).
A crackdown is important for Chinese publishers as online sales account for an increasing share of their revenues. "Online sales now contribute 10% of our total profits," reports an executive of a publishing firm. According to the General Bureau of Press, Publishing, Radio, and TV, sales of digital publishing exceeded 10% of the total revenue of China's publishing industry for the first time last year, with sales of digital publishing also jumping by 40.5% to 193.5 billion yuan (US$31.5 billion), and sales of digital books, digital periodicals, and digital newspapers leaping 52.6%.
