Huh? Google's Censoring China?

The controversy between China and Google Book Search over copyright infringement just keeps getting richer. When the Chinese Written Works Copyright Society first began complaining that Google Book Search had copied 17,000 books without permission from the authors, we were tickled to note how seriously the Chinese authorities suddenly took issue with piracy. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, editors at the books section of the People's Daily Online have accused Google (GOOG) of censoring them. That's right—censorship.

On Oct. 21, the People's Daily Online books section began running a series of stories about Google's dubious practice of digitally scanning copyrighted books by Chinese authors, without either seeking their permission or offering much beyond $60 a pop in compensation. Shortly afterwards, Google search results for stories on the books section site were flagged with a warning: "This site may contain malicious software that could harm your computer."

Google China spokesperson Cui Jin told the Global Times that the warning was automatically generated by stopbadware.org, a malware protection company that has partnered with Google. But the People's Daily has a different opinion, quoting one of its own representatives as saying, "Google has maliciously blocked the channel in retaliation" for the Google Book Search stories.

We've often taken a dim view of Google Book Search and the company's presumption to pretend that the Authors Guild negotiations give it the right to set publishing terms for every author or copyright holder in the world, regardless of whether they even know about Google's archiving project. But Chinese authorities have blocked both YouTube and Google periodically, and Google China preemptively blocks any content that might raise irritating questions about Tiananmen Square or human rights as a requisite to do business there. Let's just say that watching the Chinese Communist Party's official organ complain about censorship is a wholly unprecedented experience.