Xu Gan in copyright stoush

Seven descendants of the famous writer Xu Gan sued People’s Fine Arts Publishing House for infringement of copyright on Xu’s 33 cartoon books and asked for 356,500 yuan in compensation, Beijing Morning Post reported yesterday.

Xu’s son attended a court hearing on Tuesday and said that his father was the writer of 33 cartoon books published by People’s Fine Arts Publishing House so Xu should own the copyright according to law. The publishing house has republished the 33 books many times during the past several decades, without paying remunerations, and has not credited Xu on two books.

The publishing house said some of the problems were linked to changes in copyright law and were not intended to challenge Xu’s copyright. A lawyer of Beijing Zhaoxiaoru law office introduced that Chinese Copyright Law was implemented on June 1, 1991.