It was yesterday that a Chinese court ruled against Apple, asking them to fork out 1.03 million yuan (when converted, it would equal to $165,000 thereabouts) to a group of writers who put in claims that their work was pirated, and subsequently sold through the App Store. A judge from Beijing’s Second Intermediate People’s Court, after looking through the facts and figures of the case, held Apple liable for the sale of unlicensed works by eight local writers, where these works were then repurposed as apps and distributed via the App Store. The Wall Street Journal reported that the fine will be meted out to the group of writers as well as a couple of companies involved in the case.
This is a far cry from the a revised claim that was filed in February earlier this year, asking for 23 million yuan ($3.65 million), which is nearly twice as much as the original complaint’s 11.9 million yuan ($1.89 million) claim. Well, at least some money is better than no money at all, right? After all, $165,000 for Apple is somewhat akin to loose change.