A Chinese court has ordered Apple to pay a group of local writers for copyright infringement. China Daily reported that the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court agreed with the writers that their works were being sold on Apple's App Store without a license.
Apple was ordered to pay some 1.03 million yuan (US$165,000) to the authors, well shy of the 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) they had been seeking.
At issue are apps of Chinese books that are available on the App Store. According to the authors in question, unlicensed versions of their works were being sold on the App Store, works placed their by Chinese pirates. While Apple requires developers to own any appropriate copyrights for their apps, it turns out that there are some folks who lie.
In a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal, Apple said that its employees, "take copyright infringement complaints very seriously," and that, "we're always updating our service to better assist content owners in protecting their rights."