Apple Inc fined 1 million yuan by Chinese court
29 Dec 2012
A Chinese court has fined Apple Inc 1 million yuan for hosting third-party applications on its App Store. The applications were being used to sell pirated electronic books, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency.
The agency said Apple needed to pay compensation to eight Chinese writers and two companies for violation of their copyrights, under the ruling of the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.
A group of Chinese authors, earlier this year filed the suit against Apple, seeking compensation for selling unlicensed copies of their books. The group comprising eight authors is seeking 10 million yuan in damages.
Reuters quoted a spokesman for the group, Bei Zhicheng as saying that the group was disappointed at the judgment as some of the best-selling authors only got 7,000 yuan.
In a statement, Apple said it took copyright infringement complaints "very seriously".
According to Apple spokeswoman Carolyin Wu, the company was always updating its service to better assist content owners in protecting their rights.
