A group of writers including Han Han and Murong Xuecun is suing Apple in the latest of a string of legal battles over ebook piracy. The company is accused of having failed to block the sale of unauthorised ebook apps, and of gaining from them financially through its usual 30% cut. From Caixin online:
Under the mantle of the China Written Works Copyright Society, nine writers are suing Apple in Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court for copyright infringement of 37 works, seeking 11.91 million yuan in compensation. The group—in conjunction with other authors—has also waged campaigns over copyright infringement against Baidu and Google. In 2010, Google issued a formal apology to the writers, while in 2011 Baidu deleted nearly 2.8 million items in response to complaints from more than 40 authors ….
In August 2011, a writer named Zhu Jintai became the first Chinese individual to file a lawsuit against Apple when he sued the company for the alleged infringement of intellectual property rights. He resorted to litigation, he said, after Apple refused to provide any information about Apple’s developers.
Apple eventually removed the novel and issued a statement saying that developers, according to the terms of their agreement with Apple, may not violate, misappropriate or infringe copyright. The lawsuit is still pending.
Read more about Apple, ebooks and the Baidu Wenku case via CDT.
