A copyright dispute involving 29 famous contemporary writers was settled in the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court, with the writers winning the lawsuit.

This is the largest copyright dispute in China since 1949 in terms of the number of writers involved.

The 29 writers, including Ba Jin and Wang Meng, made a lawsuit to the court around June, accusing the Jilin Photo Publishing House and the Beijing Xinhua Book Co., Ltd. of infringing copyright by illegally publishing and distributing a book series titled " Classical Essays by Famous Chinese Writers in the Twenty Century."

The book series include essays by these writers, and the publisher neither sought permission from the writers nor remunerated them.

Therefore, the writers appealed to the court for stopping the distribution of the book series and asked the Jinlin Province-based publisher to pay 99,000 yuan for infringing copyright and 10, 000 yuan in compensation to each writer.

After legal proceedings, the court handed down its verdict, ordering the publisher to pay 23,760 yuan to each of the 29 writers for copyright infringement, and to stop distributing the book series immediately while publishing written apologies in newspapers.

(Xinhua)