Online search behemoth Google has supplied a list of more than 80,000 Chinese works scanned into its digital library, an association defending Chinese authors' copyrights said yesterday.

"The current list does not include books published before 1987, when China signed up with the global standards body's International Standard Book Number (ISBN) classification, which is a unique numeric identifier of books," Zhang Hongbo, deputy executive director-general of the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) told China Daily.

"We will push Google to provide a complete list before our fourth-round negotiations begin on Jan 8 next year," he said.

Last month, the CWWCS said, Google had scanned 18,000 books by 570 Chinese writers without their consent for its online library, Google Books, which is available only to Internet users in the US.

"The talks on compensation will be based on a recheck of the complete list," Zhang said.

The negotiations will prove to be a better choice for Chinese writers in protecting their copyrights.

"We don't encourage Chinese writers to sue Google individually due to the high costs involved. A united group could argue for better compensation in the campaign against copyright infringement," he said.

Mian Mian, a Shanghai-based novelist, had sued Google China earlier for copyright infringement. The Haidian District People's Court held a hearing on the case Tuesday.

Sun Jingwei, Mian's lawyer from the Beijing-based Yingke Law Firm, had told China Daily that Mian was the first Chinese writer to individually sue Google for copyright infringement, and that the case could encourage other Chinese writers to seek copyright protection. 
                                                                                                  Source: China Daily