NAGOYA, Nov. 29 (Kyodo) — Pirated Japanese editions of popular novels by Haruki Murakami were discovered for sale on Apple’s App Store on Monday, shortly after unauthorized Chinese translations were found available online.
The Japanese version of the novels — “1Q84” and “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” — sold on Apple’s App Store have apparently been translated from Chinese and contain typos.
Shinchosha Publishing Co., which published the books, urged Apple on Monday to remove the novels, an official of the publisher said, complaining that it was a clear case of copyright infringement.
The two novels are being sold by a Chinese company on the store for 230 yen each.
It recently came to light that Chinese translations of “1Q84” and novels by another Japanese author, Keigo Higashino, had been sold without authorization on the site, which provides applications for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad mobile devices.
Neither Murakami nor Higashino have made their works electronically available.
Applications on the App Store are subject to screening before being approved for download. Apple deletes applications if it confirms they violate copyright.
“We will deal with the matter swiftly if we receive an official complaint from a legitimate copyright holder,” a spokesman for Apple’s Japanese unit said.
