A case concerning the copyright infringement of a well-known Chinese novel Li Zicheng, has been settled through mediation at the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court.
In August, Yao Haitian, the son of Yao Xueyin, the writer of Li Zicheng, sued Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House and Beijing Xinhua Book Co. Ltd for copyright infringement.
Between March and April this year, the two defendants published cartoon strips of Li Zicheng which was revised from the novel without the permission of the son and heir of the writer.
Under an agreement, which was recently signed between the two parties, the defendants will apologize to the copyright holder in a formal letter of apology and a compensation of 80,000 yuan (US$10,000) will be paid to the plaintiff.
Yao will permit the Shanghai-based publishing house to continue selling the remaining 8,000 copies of the cartoon strips which were removed from the shelves when the plaintiff started the lawsuit.
The novel, based on the history of a farmers' uprising against the government of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) led by Li Zicheng, attracted lots of domestic and overseas readers when it was first published in the 1970s.
(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2001)
