Apple Fined $118,000 for Copyright Infringement in China

The China Daily reports (via ZDNet) that Apple has been ordered to pay $118,000 to three Chinese writers for a breach of copyright when it sold their books online without their permission.

“The writers involved this time include Mai Jia, whose books are often on best-seller lists across the country,” Wang Guohua, the writers’ lawyers, told China Daily. “In this way, Apple has the capability to know the uploaded books on its online store violated the writer’s copyright.”

Part of a second batch of lawsuits filed against Apple by the Writers’ Right Protection Union, the organization has claimed that Apple’s online store has sold the writers’ books without obtaining their approval. Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court found Apple guilty as charged, and ordered the tech giant to compensate the writers. Plus, the court urged Apple to make a change in its policy, stating that copyright infringements on downloading platforms will never reach an end if the company doesn’t change its policy terms.

Back in December, a court in China has ordered Apple to pay compensation to eight Chinese writers and two companies for violating their copyrights. They had claimed that unlicensed electronic versions of their books had been sold on Apple’s online store. The court ordered the Cupertino company to pay them $165,000 in compensation.