Google is facing a fresh hurdle to its digital books project as a Chinese court prepares to hear a case brought against the US internet company by a Chinese novelist for scanning her works.
Mian Mian, a 39-year-old author from Shanghai whose realistic descriptions of life with drugs and among prostitutes, gangsters and failed artists, has attracted a large following of young readers, is suing Google for alleged copyright infringement. Sun Jingwei, her lawyer, told the Financial Times that the Haidian People's Court in Beijing would start hearings on December 29.
The case, the first brought against Google by a Chinese writer, underlines the risks that remain to Google's plan to build a digital library which could lay the groundwork for an ‘iTunes of books' and potentially transform the publishing industry.