Apple Fined By Chinese Court Over E-Book Copyright Violation
December 28, 2012
A court in China has found Apple culpable for certain infringing activity across its online digital media stores.
According to Xinhua, the Cupertino-based company has just been ruled against by Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court on account of its role in the sale of pirated e-books by several Chinese writers.
If you'll recall, a group of prominent Chinese authors sued Apple last March over the unauthorized availability of their works in the iTunes Store. Together, they sought from the company no less than 23 million yuan ($3.5 million) in damages for copyright infringement.
Now, Apple has indeed been fined for said offense. But it has been ordered to pay a far smaller amount: 1.03 million yuan ($165,908), which will be used to recompense the eight writers, along with two companies, who filed the lawsuit.
To be sure, that amount will hardly make a dent in Apple's pockets. But the more important thing to consider here is the company's immediate action, which should be preventive as well as corrective.
As evidenced by the various scam apps and games we've pointed out in the past few months, infringing activities within Apple's online stores are certainly not limited to books. It's about time Cupertino did something far-reaching to eliminate such activities in the interests of security for both customers and intellectual property owners.
Source: Xinhua
Via: The Wall Street Journal
