Tokyo-based Kodansha Ltd. said Wednesday it has warned Chinese search engine giant Baidu that unless it deletes from its library site manga and novels the firm publishes, it may resort to legal action.
Other large publishing houses are also demanding that Baidu Japan Inc. remove content provided in its Baidu Library file-sharing service, where users can share and browse various documents free of charge.
Popular Kodansha manga, including Kaiji Kawaguchi's "Zipang" and Shuichi Shigeno's "Initial D," as well as novels by best-selling author Natsuhiko Kyogoku can be browsed and downloaded from Baidu Library, which as of noon Wednesday said it had 250,407 documents stored on its site.