Suggest a Chinese website as a new acceptable source for Chinese books

[Lei]

I checked Acceptable sources for covers and book data page, I found there was no website for Chinese books. I suggest add douban.com as an acceptable source. This site is the biggest third-party books information website in China.

I checked the national library of China, many books don't have a cover image or even don't exist. Amazon.cn is a great source, but it doesn't have old books. All books I added to goodreads I use the information on this site, double checked with amazon/google.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

That looks like a commercial site.

[lethe]

I don't think it's a site we can use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douban

[Krazykiwi]

Hey Lei again. It's weekend so you probably won't get a staff answer until Monday.

The main problem with most sites is not the amount or quality of data, but permission. Since GR is a commercial enterprise, fair use does not apply, and GR either needs explicit permission to reuse data or it has to be public domain. Publisher author sites are OK as they are the right shoulders rights holders (thank you autocorrect) and they want the data propagated. National library type sites are mostly OK because their data is explicitly released for use. Database sites in general are shakier because they don't always allow reuse under PD, they often have something like creative Commons style licenses on their data, or not for commercial use, neither of which we can use. Bookseller sites are not OK because they get their data from the publishers and don't own the data themselves or they require linking if reusing - either way no good for GR.

A few years ago, before Amazon owned GR, their was a problem which resulted in hundreds of thousands of books having all Amazon sourced data removed and it took years to repair. Actually, if you search for "unknown author" you'll see there is still a mountain of books that were never fixed. That's why GR is so strict about data sources.

I'm on my tablet so searching Doubans site is a bit of a pain, but staff will likely need to see an explicit grant of reuse license, as well as some indication that Douban actually owns the data and has the right to grant reuse.

[Lei]

So I can't use any third party commercial site?

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Lei wrote: "So I can't use any third party commercial site?"

We use only those sites that Goodreads has designated as acceptable sites.

[Emy]

In general, if it's commercial: assume that we cannot use it.

[lethe]

The Wikipedia entry says it's a social networking site, and since Facebook and such are not allowed either, I don't think this will be approved.

[Lei]

I understand policy, I checked the national library, several publisher website, data is good, but the cover is empty or small. I'll look for more reliable source for Chinese books, but at this moment, I think amazon is the best choice.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Lei wrote: "So I can't use any third party commercial site?"

In general, that is correct.