Responding to a new contract drafted by China Literature, an online portal for novels, which could reportedly grant the platform excessive rights to the content it distributes, many authors announced they would stop uploading their stories to the portal. This forced the platform to revise some of its terms.

The development of online literature has created many quality stories for China's culture industry in recent years. By the end of 2019, China had 17.55 million online literature writers and 455 million readers. And the numbers will continue to climb.

The success of web literature was achieved by the joint efforts of authors and platforms. Writers who create excellent works bring portals profits, while they enjoy the support provided by these platforms, such as incentives, training and copyright management services.

Therefore, in the face of disputes, both authors and platforms should reach consensus as soon as possible through rational negotiations.

The industry should consolidate its advantages and fully exploit the value of outstanding online literature. At the same time, platforms should provide more incentives, welfare guarantees and copyright management services to protect the rights and interests of authors.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article originally published in Xinhua Daily Telegraph on May 6)    

(Print Edition Title: Online Literature)