Repost this, and while you’re at it, curse Robin Li’s name. The main text follows: Yesterday, negotiations between several friends of mine, who represent the industry, and Baidu completely broke down. Back in the early days, Shen Haobo, Lu Jinbo, and Hou Xiaoqiang had all, at various times and in different settings, told me about the damage Baidu inflicted upon the entire publishing sector. I told them, "Sue Baidu." They replied, "We have, and not one of us has won. Baidu is incredibly wealthy and well-connected; rumor has it they can sway many courts. Baidu's PR machine is also formidable; they reportedly have many media outlets in their pocket too." I recall lamenting at the time, "Is Robin Li's father the new Li Gang, then?" And so, that led to the 315 writers' rights defense. During yesterday's talks, I felt the Copyright Society of China (CSC) really ought to have stepped in, because the last time the CSC negotiated with Google, the whole thing collapsed, and Google promptly exited China—a resounding success.

I vaguely recall the last Google incident. Google scanned Chinese writers' books, paid a few dozen dollars per title upfront, and then displayed the table of contents and abstracts. To read the full text, one had to pay for a download, with Google then splitting the revenue with the Chinese authors. The irony is that everyone ignored Baidu Wenku, which has always offered free reading and downloading of all authors' and all books, while launching an attack against copyright-respecting Google. The justification was that Google shouldn't have scanned without asking permission first. Looking back now, everyone should be deeply ashamed. Google and Baidu are different: Google has a shred of dignity, so everyone rushed forward to tear that facade apart. Baidu has no such pretense; seeing there was no face left to rip, people simply dispersed.

Baidu preaches that the spirit of the internet is about being free and sharing. I strongly disagree with that notion. I believe the spirit of the internet is freedom and dissemination, not blanket freeness and sharing. If the internet's spirit were truly about being free, why does it cost money to place advertisements for search rankings on Baidu? If the spirit were sharing, why is it that while we all "share," Robin Li became China's richest man? Why aren't his personal fortunes and Baidu's assets shared among netizens? Baidu operates like a massive shopping mall where the merchandise is offered for free. This model turned it into China's largest mall, attracting huge foot traffic, which it then monetizes by plastering ads on the walls. There is nothing inherently wrong with this business model, but I hope this mall remembers that it still has to pay for the inventory it sources from the manufacturers. Baidu has also concocted this idea of "sharing." Sharing should mean I put my household items out, you put yours out, and then we all take what we need. The problem is, right now, both you and I are taking other people's things and "sharing" them away. That is Baidu's version of free and open sharing. Baidu was fortunate enough to emerge during an era where one could recklessly infringe upon the rights of writers, musicians, and filmmakers. Crucially, Baidu was fortunate enough to emerge in a country where one can violate the copyrights of nearly the entire cultural industry and still receive protection.

Certainly, Baidu has many supporters, and I understand their perspective perfectly. Sometimes buying books feels inconvenient, and sometimes reading feels like it costs too much, so you end up turning to Baidu Wenku. It’s like how I sometimes watch pirated DVDs or download music from Baidu MP3s. But I know perfectly well that my actions are wrong. Even if the transgression is minor, I must never rationalize my own mistake, much less turn around and insult those fighting to protect their copyrights. I’ve seen many comments saying things like, "You people must be crazy for money! The internet is meant for sharing! The things you write hardly qualify as literature! We support Baidu." My friends, I deeply understand the plight of writers. Most authors take two or three years to finish a single book, earning perhaps only ten or twenty thousand yuan from it.

These writers might only earn an annual salary of ten thousand yuan, my friends—a monthly wage of eight hundred, my friends—no social security, my friends, and they still have to pay taxes, my friends. They are struggling more than you realize! Apart from a few top-selling superstars, the vast majority of Chinese writers subsist on meager incomes. Many online authors must write ten thousand characters a day just to scrape by on download revenues calculated at two fen per thousand characters. Who on earth sells anything by the fraction of a cent these days, my friends? You can read a five-thousand-character fresh serial installment for just one mao! One mao—you wouldn't even give that to a beggar, my friends! Yet you consume it for free and then have the audacity to criticize them? And on the other side sits a man worth over sixty billion RMB! Please, everyone, leave a path for the Chinese publishing industry and its writers to survive. As you pursue your path toward oil, please leave our cooking oil alone.

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