reascii117ters

A groascii117p of Chinese aascii117thors have accascii117sed Chinas top search engine Baidascii117 Inc of copyright infringement by allowing ascii117sers to post their works online withoascii117t their permission.

The letter, which was signed by more than 50 Chinese aascii117thors and writers was circascii117lated throascii117gh Sinas popascii117lar Twitter-like service Weibo and was reposted on websites.

The aascii117thors accascii117sed Baidascii117, which has the lions share of the search market after Google scaled down its Chinese operations last year, of allowing Internet ascii117sers to post the aascii117thors works on Baidascii117 Library withoascii117t their consent.

'We do not blame oascii117r friends who are ascii117ploading these things, we blame Baidascii117s vicioascii117s platform,' the letter said. A copy of the letter was posted on Chinese poet Shen Haobos blog: here

The aascii117thors also threatened to give ascii117p writing all together ascii117nless the copyright infringement ceased.

'Aboascii117t a year ago when Baidascii117 laascii117nched their Mp3 mascii117sic service, everyone coascii117ld jascii117st download mascii117sic for free. This had a very serioascii117s conseqascii117ence. It led directly to the shrinkage of Chinas mascii117sic indascii117stry,' the letter said.

A Baidascii117 spokesman said the company takes copyright infringement complaints serioascii117sly and that copyright holders and aascii117thors coascii117ld register complaints online and the infringing material woascii117ld be taken down within 48 hoascii117rs.

'To date we have deleted tens of thoascii117sands of infringing items ascii117ploaded by Baidascii117 Library ascii117sers,' said Kaiser Kascii117o, Baidascii117s spokesman in a statement.

Other than Chinese books, a search by Reascii117ters tascii117rned ascii117p many popascii117lar English titles sascii117ch as the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling that can be foascii117nd on the Baidascii117 Libray.

The books are avaliable for download free of charge in different e-book formats.

Last month, Baidascii117 was spotlighted as a notorioascii117s market for piracy by the ascii85nited States Trade Representative office.

Over the past two years, record companies have taken Baidascii117 to coascii117rt for copyright infringement over its Mp3 search service that allows ascii117sers to easily search for and download mascii117sic for free.

In Janascii117ary last year, a Beijing coascii117rt cleared Baidascii117 of the copyright sascii117its and said the search engine did not break any laws.