A Xiamen-based E-newspaper was found to have violated a writer's copyright for plagiarizing his story, Beijing Intermediate People's Court ruled Wednesday.
The Xiamen Commercial Report used Zhao Jun's story about the coalition drive of China's universities on July 30, but the slightly modified story carried the name of "Chen Jiali" instead as the writer.
During the court hearing process, though Xiamen Commercial Report claimed that it copied the story from the Internet, it could not provide any proof of the source of the copy.
The court stated that the newspaper did not get the writer's permission to use his story, neither did it pay remuneration to the author, thus it has violated the writer's copyright.
Xiamen Commercial Report was required to pay 1,500 yuan to Zhao Jun.
Another E-newspaper, Huasheng Monthly, was sued by Zhao Jun at the same time and found innocent. It copied the same story from Xiamen Commercial Report in August and remitted 40 yuan afterwards through Xiamen Commercial Report to the so-called "Chen Jiali", not knowing the real author.
Though not violating the author's copyright, Huasheng Monthly still had to pay 150 yuan to Zhao Jun as remuneration, according to the court judgment.
(People's Daily 03/23/2001)
