Toyota production cuts to last until end of the year

Production is likely to return to normal levels only by November or December, the company said.

Toyota and other auto manufacturers have been facing a shortage of parts due to the damage caused by last month's earthquake and tsunami.

Toyota has curbed production at its factories in Japan and overseas.

The world's biggest carmaker said that production at its Japanese factories was likely to begin the recovery process by July, while its global operations will start to pick up speed by August.

However a complete recovery in its production at its Japanese and global plants will happen only by the end of the year, the company said.

Baidu deletes 2.8m online works due to copyright tussle

Chinese search engine Baidu has deleted 2.8m works from its online library, Baidu Wenku, in an attempt to settle a copyright dispute with writers.

More than 40 authors had accused the company of offering their works as free downloads without permission.

Negotiations between the authors and the company had broken down last week, but Baidu had promised to delete unlicensed items.

Baidu Wenku allows users to read, share or download texts free of cost.

The company said that the latest move meant all infringing material had been removed from its library.

"By Tuesday afternoon we had removed almost 2.8 million files, mainly from the Literary Works section of the site, which was the primary concern of the writers and publishers," Baidu spokesperson Kaiser Kuo told the BBC.
Responsibility issues

Baidu Wenku allows users to upload documents and texts to its library.

As a result, the company had said that the users who uploaded these files should be responsible for any copyright issues.

However, the authors had claimed that the firm should be held responsible for any infringements.

While the two sides look for an amicable solution to the problem, Baidu said it was aiming to work more closely with writers and authors in the future.

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