Publishers Accuse Dangdang of Offering Free E-Books
Beijing Times, 6/15/12
Chinese publishers with books on the Dangdang book store including China CITIC press, The Writers Publishing House, and Beijing Booky Publishing have recently demanded that Dangdang immediately remove from its shelves e-books that the publishers claim the site has been providing for free to its digital reading community, constituting a breach of contract.
The Dangdang Digital Library provides digital library services to universities and research institutions nationwide, and is currently still in its pilot phase. The Digital Library offers a range of categories of digital resources, including e-books, periodicals, and audio books, mainly featuring best-selling products.
An informed source recently discovered that the library websites of Chinese universities and research institutions such as Renmin University, Beijing Technology and Business University, and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications each house a distinctive section of their homepages with a notice encouraging users to use Dangdang's trial for its Digital Library, and providing an account and password for the community to use free of charge. The trial periods differ, with some extending through July and others through August of this year.
Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Dangdang Upgrades E-Book Platform," MD 2/20/12 issue.
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