Chinese publishing house sues Apple for copyright infringement

中國大百科訴蘋果侵權 索賠53萬元

Encyclopedia of China Publishing House has filed suit in a Beijing court against Apple Co. and one of its Chinese subsidiaries, alleging Apple violated the publisher's "right to network dissemination of information" by selling apps equipped with its encyclopedia content, the Beijing Business Herald reported.

The publishing company said it discovered last October that Apple was selling iPhone and iPad apps that included substantial, unlicensed portions of its Encyclopedia of China, in violation of copyright laws.

The suit seeks an injunction against sale of the software and 535,200 yuan in compensation for economic losses caused by the infringement.

The publisher's move puts Apple back in the defendant's seat for the second time in a month. Beijing LeTV Mobile Media & Technology Co. sued the U.S. tech giant in late April for infringing its right to exclusive network dissemination of "Painted Skin" and other films by providing unlicensed, paid downloads.

Apple's App Store is widely considered the most mature platform for mobile applications, with about 370,000 apps available for download. But because of management problems, the online store has become a disaster area of video and print copyright infringement.

Every work uploaded to the App Store must be reviewed and approved by Apple, said Liu Chuang, a lawyer at Beijing Ocean Law Firm. Apple failed to fulfill this duty in this case, and as a result, Encyclopedia of China has a good chance of winning, he said.

"In today's world of widespread tablet computers, users have strong demand for books on mobile devices," Liu said. "This will lead to a large increase in these types of cases for some time to come."

北京商報報道，因認為自己的信息網絡傳播權被侵犯，中國大百科全書出版社將蘋果公司及其中國子公司告上法庭。

中國大百科公司訴稱，去年10月份發現蘋果在線商店上銷售的iPhone和iPad應用程序中有《中國大百科全書》的大量內容，兩被告的行為侵犯了原告的著作權。

中國大百科公司請求法院判令兩被告立即停止侵權行為，賠償經濟損失及相關支出53.52萬元。

這將是蘋果第二次坐在被告席上。4月底，樂視網以涉嫌侵權狀告蘋果，訴稱蘋果在線商店在未獲授權情況下提供《畫皮》等電影的收費下載服務。

蘋果在線商店是目前業內公認最為成熟的手機應用軟件平臺，擁有大約37萬個應用軟件。但由于管理問題蘋果在線商店正成為視頻、圖書侵權的"重災區"。

北京合川律師事務所律師劉闖認為，每個上傳到蘋果在線商店的作品必須經過蘋果公司審核后才能銷售，蘋果公司在該案當中沒有盡到責任，中國大百科公司勝訴幾率較大。

劉闖表示: "在平板電腦十分普及的今天，用戶對手機圖書有旺盛的需求，這也將引發類似案件在未來一段時間內數量大增。"