Mian Mian

“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,” reports Kathrin Hille in a Financial Times story.

The report says 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.” It is the first such case brought against Google in China, and “comes as talks between the company and two Chinese writers’ associations over works by authors already scanned by Google are in deadlock.”

Google has since taken the scan of Mian’s complete novel offline, but Mian says the damage is done and is demanding Rmb60,000 ($8,800) in compensation … and an apology.

Hearings on the case in the Haidian People’s Court in Beijing are scheduled to start on December 29.