China is not exactly known for having a watertight regime when it comes to piracy and copyright violations, but it’s trying to change that perception, and here’s a case in point: a group of eight authors, calling themselves the China Written Works Copyright Society, has won a case against Apple in Beijing for hosting apps that were in themselves violating the copyright on their works. Apple has in turn been ordered to pay 1 million yuan ($ 160,000) in compensation – pennies to the iPhone giant and only about 10% of how much the authors were trying to get out of Apple when they originally brought the case against it earlier in the year. The news comes at a interesting time for Apple in China. The region — the world’s biggest smartphone market at the moment — is a significant one for Apple, accounting for 15% of all of its revenues. But it’s also facing huge competition, primarily from low-priced Android device makers. In Q4, Apple reported sales of $ 5.7 billion in Greater China, which was flat compared to Q3, but up 26% compared to a year ago. Apple has had also to grapple with contrasting (and not always positive) perceptions on how well its newest handset, the iPhone 5, has been selling in China since launching this month. It also comes as China is making ever more moves to improve the connection between internet users and real-world identities. However, it’s very much a double-edged sword. A law passed today requiring real-name identities for online users is one more way for China to track illicit content posters, but it could also be seen as a way for the country to further control how people use the internet to express themselves, sometimes in acts of dissent against the country’s official lines of thought. For their part, the China Written Works Copyright Society is unhappy with the amount of compensation ordered by the court. “We are disappointed at the judgment. Some of our best-selling authors only got 7,000 yuan. The judgment is a signal of encouraging piracy,” a representative of the group told Reuters. Still, the sum could be seen as significant winnings in a country where the average monthly wage for a working class person is $ 190. And it opens the door further for Apple to face yet more such claims from other rights holders in the country. To date, this is the second time that Apple has lost a suit in China
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