Court in China Rules Apple to Pay Authors for Copyright Infringement
In March of this year, a group of Chinese authors sued Apple for allegedly adding their books to the iTunes Store without authorization. In three separate lawsuits filed in Beijing No. 2 Intermediate court, 12 writers were claiming that 59 of their works were sold through iTunes without licenses. Today, a legal newspaper in Beijing is reporting that the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate court ruled that Apple should pay the original 8 writers who filed the lawsuit a total of $68,781 US in damages for its App Store's copyright infringement. Some reports were claiming that the writers were suing for 3.5 million US while others reported 1.6 million US. So while it was definitely a victory for the writers, the penalty handed down by the court was far from the compensation that they originally sought from Apple.
We reported last month that Apple was reportedly in settlement talks with another popular Taiwanese author named Giddens Ko regarding copyright infringement. It's unknown at this time if the settlement talks were concluded successfully.
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