Baidu Wenku 百度文庫

[skylee]

I am being a hypocrite, but I was genuinely shocked to find out how easy it was to download US best sellers from the internet free of charge. All you have to do is to register (you don't even need to use your real identity). And if you don't want to download, you can always read them online, free of charge.

http://wendang.baidu.com/

This ease of access to copyright materials (books, songs, movies) without paying is a bit disturbing. But then where should we draw the line? I can borrow the same books/DVDs/CDs from libraries, which are funded by taxpayers' money. It seems that such websites regard themselves as no more than repositories of resources, which may or may not be copyrighted, for non-commercial use. I feel quite confused about the whole concept of copyright here ....

(Perhaps there are different charges for books acquired by libraries? Different agreements?)

(I guess the website is blocked outside China. Can anyone confirm this?)

[imron]

I guess the website is blocked outside China

Nope. Works fine.

[gato]

Wow, Baidu should really block access to non-mainland user, including HK, Macau and Taiwan.

Let's see if this case will go before the runaway jury:

http://wendang.baidu.com/search?word=john+grisham&lm=0&od=0

John Grisham

[joshuawbb]

Indeed, this is the tip of the iceberg, though Baidu is always the one to reach the headlines with it's naughty behaviour with intellectual property. What you might not have seen yet are the masses of other Chinese sites that offer GBs of films, music and sometimes literature too for free download and streaming, with no registration required.

The most common format is a site that consists of film covers and genre-separated lists of available films on the site. You click on the film or cover, then click the little part 1/2 icon on the next page, and you're taken to a media streaming page. The sites use common Chinese media players such as Qvod to handle the content. After 10 seconds of buffering, the film will play - most often in close to DVD quality. And not only is the film streaming, but is being stored on your hard drive at the same time, so you can go back to it offline. The people behind these sites have mastered the .RMVB video format - nearly all the films are close to or matching DVD quality, and they are mostly between 150MB and 600MB in size. This means that the films can stream and download at the same time on an average internet speed, whilst almost never pausing in playback. The films go up as soon as they become available somewhere in the world - starting as stolen director's copies/critic DVDs, being replaced by a DVDrip, then followed by a Blu-Ray rip. I've never seen a cam sopy there however; looks like they've got quality standards.

I don't know the exact way these sites are run. I presume all the "staff" behind them are in one sort of big film-sharing network. Each film is sourced from the guys at some big obscure forum/BBS (the films display their BBS origins at the film start), where they have Chinese subtitles added, and get converted to RMVB. They are then put on these sites. These sites are no joke - they are common knowledge to plenty of Chinese students and I guarantee you'll have already seen someone using them while sat in a convenience shop or whatnot. If they're watching a film with characteristic blue Chinese subtitles, it's almost always from one of those sites or one of the source BBS places.

As I've explained, these sites are no big secret, but I don't think many an expat has found them yet. A Chinese friend of mine back in the UK told me about them first when I shared a few British film ideas to her, and by the next day she'd somehow watched all of them. I asked her how and she told me about these places. I also hold up my guilty hand and say that while in China, I've tested these places out and my girlfriend likes to watch these films occasionally on the weekend with me. And to be honest, if we're not watching the films online, we'd only be buying fake DVDs, right? Unless that film is one of the limited few on genuine release here. If you watch a film streamed for free on one of these sites, then at least you're not paying profit to the fake DVD market, so you can feel a tiny bit moral I suppose.

Obviously, to post links to examples would certainly be against forum rules. So the last thing I'll say about them is that they're big and pretty permanent - if you thought the database of films and media on VeryCD was big, you should take a look at one of these. All films are subtitled in Chinese, and are from all different countries, so plenty of variation. As well as this, the site has a database of TV shows from China and abroad, especially American ones.

Sorry for going on there. I honestly don't mean to sound like an advertisement - very much the opposite. My intention is to explain these places, since I've wanted to find out just how they do all their stuff. The level of copyright infringement there is boundless. I don't intend to bring these out into the light so to show them off as home cinemas for everyone, instead it's to show them as an example that copyright infringement and piracy when it comes to media is far more widespead than VeryCD or pirate DVD stores in China. That being said, some of you might already know about these sites. And besides, even if we do look at them as a bit of fun and a free film, there's no doubt the scale of them is shocking.

I've tested the connection from outside China, and all of them work abroad. If anyone in the film industry took a look at one of these, they'd spill their coffee. Just to give you an idea, the stolen critic copy of Inception was already up and ready about a month ago.

[Outofin]

I feel the opposite. It's increasingly difficult to find movies and TV shows for download. There are still some but far fewer than before.

Meanwhile, youtube seems to have loosed their copyright restriction. I'm watching 剑雨 now.

[Guest realmayo]

To be fair, I'm not sure how this is better/worse than the English-speaking internet where from what I've seen there seems to be so much -- music, films, software, whatever -- available via torrents. Maybe there are books too: I'm sure as more books are published as ebooks then they will be pirated too. I reckon that as people are encouraged to spend more and more money on hardware (kindles, mp3 players, computers, ipones, HD whatevers) they become keener to recoup some of that expense by paying less for the "software".

[skylee]

Oh I thought it was difficult to get pirated films/music/books outside of China, probably because I don't use torrents.

[Outofin]

I reckon that as people are encouraged to spend more and more money on hardware (kindles, mp3 players, computers, ipones, HD whatevers)

I just counted: my wife and I have 2 laptops, 2 smart phones, 1 PC, 1 iPad, 2 kindles, 3 cameras. I feel so wrong so I'm selling one of the laptops and one of the cameras.

[jbradfor]

How much do you want for them?

Oh I thought it was difficult to get pirated films/music/books outside of China, probably because I don't use torrents.

Pretty much all movies and such can be found on torrents -- but they are bit harder to use, take longer to d/l, and of course you can't stream movies. I confess I've used them a couple of times, but only for Asian movies that do not have a USA distribution, and hence are pretty much impossible to get here. [Well, except of course for ordering on-line or in major cities....] Otherwise, as you said, libraries are much more convenient.

[skylee]

Does anyone know if Baidu Wenku has been "regulated" or something? I have tried to find some books there but to no avail ...

But then there is another similar website - docin (actually I had started visiting docin before I knew about baidu wenku). And it has what I was trying to find. And the strange thing is that it actually charges users (a few RMB) for downloading some books, as if those were legitimate copies ... (well people charge for pirated DVDs etc) and you can even pay with paypal. I guess I was quite impressed.

PS - how do you open a epub file?

[Kenny同志]

It’s unethical to upload copyrighted materials, even more so to profit from them. But I admit to having downloaded such materials. Hypocritical me.

[skylee]

It’s unethical to upload copyrighted materials, even more so to profit from them.

Right. It is not just unethical. It is illegal in many parts of the world.

But I am still confused. Why is it all right that I buy a book/CD, and then lend it to all of my 100 friends (assuming that I have that many friends and they are all interested in it), but not all right that I upload an electronic copy of it to the internet and share it with everyone interested? Is it because the law distinguishes between hard copies and electronic copies, or original copies vs reproduced copies?

And why is it all right for me to record a TV programme (say a film) on a VCR/disc, watch it later and then lend it to my friends, but not all right if I upload it to the internet?

I suppose they have to do with some legal concepts that I don't understand.

[xiaocai]

Apparently you can't lend it to your friends. I had a look on one of my CDs and it says "All rights reserved. Unauthroised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending ,public performance and broadcasting prohibited." on the disc. So theoretically you do need to ask for permission from the copyright holder before you lend it to your friends I suppose?

[skylee]

Really?? I can't lend a book to a friend? :o

[xiaocai]

Well I'm not quite sure about books. On the copyright page of most of my books it only says 版权所有，翻印必究. So I guess as long as you don't make unauthorised copies it would be fine. However it seems like you should not even just lend your CDs to someone else, be it your friend or family member or some complete stranger, theoretically...

[jbradfor]

"Unauthroised" is the key word I think. Libraries obviously lend materials.

Yes, copyright law is being more and more outdated with each passing year. When you "buy" a CD, what do you actually buy? You buy a physical item, but what you are really paying for is a license to listen to the music on the CD as often as you like and for as long as you like. You certainly do not own the copyright to a CD you buy (in most cases....).

But even that is not fully true. It seems that you own a license to the music only for as long as you physically own the CD. If you sell the CD, or lose it, or it gets destroyed, you can not legally copy the music from someone else that owns the CD.

And say that you have bought a tape or a record of some music (remember those?). But now you want a CD quality copy of the music you bought. Is it legal of you to copy the CD of the same album that you bought on tape?

So what are you really buying?

lend it to all of my 100 friends (assuming that I have that many friends and they are all interested in it), but not all right that I upload an electronic copy of it to the internet and share it with everyone interested? Is it because the law distinguishes between hard copies and electronic copies, or original copies vs reproduced copies?

In general, I think the idea is that as long as only one person is reading/listening to each purchased copy at any given time, it is legal.

[skylee]

Is it legal of you to copy the CD of the same album that you bought on tape?

Is it? But not on tape any more. Is it legal for me to turn the music to mp3 for my mobile players?

I see that you really like spliting your cannot's.

[jbradfor]

Is it legal for me to turn the music to mp3 for my mobile players?

AFAIK, in the USA, it has never been decided by the courts. I think everyone just assumes it's OK, but it's not law. I don't know about other countries.

I see that you really like spliting your cannot's.

It's the American in me, I like annoying people that learned (learnt?) British-English. Although you'll note I didn't "correct" xiaocai's "Unauthroised".