Chinese author takes on search engine giant

BEIJING - A Chinese writer sued the search engine giant Google for illegally digitizing her book for online reading and downloading in a Beijing court on Wednesday.

By the end of 2009, Google had scanned and saved about 80,000 Chinese books without the writers' authorization. Its proposal to share sales revenue with the owners of the copyrights has repeatedly been declined and no progress has been made on that front, according to the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS).

Shanghai female writer Wang Shen, who uses the pseudonym Mian Mian, alleged her copyright on the book, Acid Lover (Yansuan Qingren), was infringed and required a public apology from Google, as well as 61,000 yuan ($8,900) in compensation.