Apple Fined $165,000 in Chinese Copywrite Dispute

Apple has been fined 1.03 million yuan or about $165,000 for allowing apps on the App Store to sell unlicensed copies of eBooks from a group of eight Chinese authors.

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.

"We are disappointed at the judgment. Some of our best-selling authors only got 7,000 yuan. The judgment is a signal of encouraging piracy," Bei Zhicheng, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters.


Apple said it takes copyright infringement complaints "very seriously".

"We're always updating our service to better assist content owners in protecting their rights," Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said.

This isn't the first time Apple has been forced to pay for copywrite infringement claims. The same court ordered Apple to pay 520,000 yuan to a Chinese encyclopedia publisher in September.

Read More