(GUANGZHOU DAILY)

Negotiations between Chinese search engine Baidu and Chinese writers over a copyright dispute broke down on Thursday, according to a statement issued by publishers and writers who attended the negotiation.

According to the statement, Baidu refused to meet any of the demands of the publishers and writers.

Among others, Baidu was asked to make public apologies for "copyright infringement," compensate the losses of publishers and writers, and stop any acts of infringement and and set up an operation model so any online publication receives the author's approval prior to being published online.

The negotiations lasted for 4.5 hours, which involved 4 people from Baidu and 6 from the publishers and writers.

Baidu officials could not be reached for comment.

Baidu, China's search engine giant, was blamed on March 15 by Chinese writers for participating in copyright violations, since the website offers free online excerpts of unauthorized stories and books.

On March 15, which is World Consumer Rights Day, more than 40 writers charged, in an open letter, that Baidu stole their work and infringed on their copyrights.

The letter was published on the personal blog of Shen Haobo, a publisher, and called for an end to the piracy.

Launched in November 2009, Baidu's online library offers an open platform for online resource sharing. Users can read or download information for free and all accumulated resources come from user uploads.

(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2011)