It’s often said that growing its own cultural industry, and thus creating its own domestic constituency of artists affected by piracy, is what is really going to lead China to enforce intellectual property laws stringently.
I was reminded of that by reading an article in Wired, The Chinese Novel Finds New Life Online, which covers the growth of a new niche, the online novel. It seems that China’s experience backs up that of Cory Doctorow: releasing books for free online actually serves to boost sales of the print version.
The article is also interesting in describing the business models being developed, and how authors and publishers are trying to fend off the pirates….
