Chinese female pop star Tian Zhen was ordered Thursday by a Beijing court to apologize to an amateur song writer and composer for singing his song without permission.
She has been banned by the Beijing No.2 People's Intermediate People's Court from singing the song, titled "Lighter", written and composed by Huang Xiaodong, without his consent.
The court ordered Tian, the Beijing Xiyangyang Culture Development Company and the Zhengdong Disc Company to apologize to Huang in a music journal for singing and publishing the song without his permission.
The above-mentioned companies are to pay 35,000 yuan(US$4233.85) to the author as compensation. The fourth defendant, a publishing house, was ordered to pay the author 5,000 yuan(US$604.84).
According to the author, he came across Tian's album "Shock" last July, which contains the song written and composed by him but without any due acknowledgment.
Shao Mingyan, the presiding judge, said that she hoped that thecase would give a warning to those indulging in similar illicit practices in China's music industry.
(People's Daily December 14, 2001)
