Chinese writers are set to sue Apple for allegedly downloading their books for free - and infringing copyright - from the Apple app store. They say Apple's behavior has caused them a huge loss in lost sales.

Chinese writers to sue Apple for piracy.

Evidence shows that many Apple users have downloaded original works by Chinese writers disregarding the E-books' copyrights.

An Apple user said, "I do not think copyright is involved, and the downloading of all those books from the Apple Store onto my iPhone is legal."

But it is exactly the copyright issue that has led to the collective action by Chinese writers against Apple.

Nanpai, Chinese writer, said, "According to our analysis of the statistics released by Apple, all my books have been downloaded several million times, losing me more than 20 million yuan in book sales."

Not only have the rights of writers been encroached upon, but also the rights of video and movie producers. LeTV invested heavily in buying up the right to broadcast the Chinese movie "Painted Skin". But soon the movie appeared in Apple's app store, Movie on Demand.

Liu Xiaoqing from Legal Department of LeTV, said, "They put our movie on their store and collected money, about 0.99 US dollars per show. We haven't authorized anyone to show the movie. Their theft has done us great harm."

It is thought that Apple and other application software developers share the proceeds from illegal downloading with 30 percent going to Apple and 70 percent to developers.