Now this is undoubtedly a first. While until now we have heard of U.S based companies going after Chinese companies for infringing upon intellectual property, for once, we are seeing the Chinese go after the Americans.
A group of Chinese writers have filed a 12 million Yuan ($1.9 million) lawsuit against none other than Apple for copyright violations. Apple, who’s had a history of suing firms – including Chinese ones that have in the past infringed upon their designs and UI seems to be receiving a taste of its own medicine.
Many popular writers and bloggers are a part of the group that has collectively filed this suit. These include popular blogger Han Han, author Li Chengpeng, the author of “Li Kele Fights Demolition”, Cang Yue and Murong Xuecun.
What exactly is their issue with Apple?
Well, according to the lawsuit, Apple has infringed upon as many as 37 works written by as many as 9 Chinese authors. They have formed a group called the China Written Works Copyright Society, which has in the past gone after search engines Google and Baidu over copyright infringement, as well. In fact, back in 2010, Google issued a formal apology to these authors while Baidu removed as many as 2.8 million infringing items from their repository in response to complaints from more than 40 authors.
The problem these writers have with Apple is that it provides users an easy way to download the works of these authors from its online store, and in the process also earns revenue “The download number of one best-selling book is as much as one million, which creates about one billion dollars in losses for each writer,” the society’s spokesman Bei Zhicheng told the Nanjing Daily.
With Apple keeping a cool 30 percent of all profits garnered from the sale of digital books and with users often unaware that many of their downloaded books are actually pirated, they allege that it was logical for them to take action against Apple.
Apple is yet to respond to this latest development. Anyway, grab your popcorn’s folks, as this is going to be one interesting battle!
[Via Caixin]
