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The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese courts have ordered Apple to pay a group of Chinese writers $165,000 for unlawfully distributing copyrighted works in certain Chinese apps.
A Beijing court ordered Apple Inc. to pay 1.03 million yuan, or about $165,000, to a group of local writers who said the U.S. gadget maker sold unlicensed copies of their books online, according to state media.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said Thursday that the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court ordered Apple to pay the money to eight Chinese writers and two companies for violating their copyrights.
The writers had asked for 10 million yuan and Apple was ordered to pay a fraction of that. Unlicensed eBook distribution has been a problem for Apple of late, as the report notes that the company had a similar issue back in September. Apple isn't intentionally distributing the copyrighted content itself, but because the company is the gatekeeper for the digital stores, the Chinese courts are requiring Apple to pay.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Close down the Chinese bookstore then, since the country wants to hold them responsible for the actions of their devs. After all, China doesn't want people to get "unauthorized" information to people anyway.
Whenever I read anything that the Chinese complain about with copyright, unauthorized distribution etc. I have to laugh.
Sad as it is:-)
For consumers, piracy is a good thing:
1) It lets people to get something which they could not afford to buy under any possible conditions
2) It makes companies to reasonably price their products.
1) The way I was raised, that's called "stealing." Especially if it's a luxury that they shouldn't have if they didn't work for the money to afford, and they don't need it to live.
2) It drives up the prices for everyone else, because we have to compensate for YOUR lack of proper rearing.
For consumers, piracy is a good thing:
1) It lets people to get something which they could not afford to buy under any possible conditions
2) It makes companies to reasonably price their products.
Dude, both those things are completely contradictory. What you meant to say was, it helps people get for free some reasonably priced items they could easily afford to pay for.
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Piracy is the equivalent of stealing a car that duplicates itself when it gets stolen.
And now there are two cars. The horror. :eek:
Piracy is the equivalent of duplicating currency. The only victim is every law abiding person who's goods/money just got devalued by greedy freeloaders.
As the distributor of the infringing material Apple should have some liability. Now what Apple should do is go after the ones who uploaded the books. They may not be able to recover all or any of their damages, but financially breaking them will serve as a pretty good incentive for others.
Why didn't the writers sue the people who uploaded the books directly instead of going after Apple ? Answer - Apple has more money.
I would not be surprised if it was a scam where the group of writers arranged to have someone upload the books so the writers could sue :D.
1) The way I was raised, that's called "stealing." Especially if it's a luxury that they shouldn't have if they didn't work for the money to afford, and they don't need it to live.
Piracy is the equivalent of stealing a car that duplicates itself when it gets stolen.2) It drives up the prices for everyone else, because we have to compensate for YOUR lack of proper rearing.
And now there are two cars. The horror. :eek:
That's BS. Chinese citizens are creating junk lawsuits to try to sue for huge amounts of unwarranted cash. China has the WORTS copy right laws. They allow pirated media and consumer goods. The fact that they would actually try to uphold any type copy right lawsuit reflects the flaws of Communism and the crookedness of Chinese courts.
For consumers, piracy is a good thing:1) It lets people to get something which they could not afford to buy under any possible conditions
2) It makes companies to reasonably price their products.