Imaginechina, has recently won 38 copyright infringement lawsuits against Nasdaq-listed Baidu Inc., the largest search engine and one of the biggest Internet Internet companies in China.
The Haidian People’s Court in Beijing adjudicates in the first-instance verdicts that Baidu and its affiliates have pirated a total of 150 images from 20 contracted photographers and that Baidu ought to compensate the plaintiffs RMB 415,000 yuan ($60,940) for the violations and the related costs.ch engine and one of the biggest Internet companies in China.
The Haidian People’s Court in Beijing adjudicates in the first-instance verdicts that Baidu and its affiliates have pirated a total of 150 images from 20 contracted photographers and that Baidu ought to compensate the plaintiffs RMB 415,000 yuan ($60,940) for the violations and the related costs.
The lawsuits were filed by Dongfang IC (DFIC), aka
Imaginechina, the leading visual content service solution provider in China, over copyright infringements of images.
The ruling is widely regarded as a milestone and a triumph for copyright protection in China's Internet industry and reemphasizes the Chinese government's determination on protection and development of intellectual property rights.
As one of the country's and even the world's biggest Internet companies, Baidu cashes in billions of dollars on huge varieties of operations and investments every year. According to its latest financial announcement, the firm earned RMB 26.0 billion ($3.93 billion) in revenue and RMB 6.4 billion ($967 million) in profit in the second quarter of 2018, increasing 32% and 45% respectively year over year. Being such a massive cash-sufficient conglomerate, Baidu should have become one of the main powers in copyright protection and set a proper example.
But it seems to prefer pretending to ignore the reality of infringements and afterwards make all-out efforts to defend its illegal actions. Baidu even filed a lawsuit against DFIC's legitimate claims and actions to withdrawal of Baidu-related apps from Apple App Store and other app markets.
DFIC sees defending content contributors’ rights, and fighting for their interests as one of its key roles in China’s visual service industry. The company makes all-out efforts to see to it that creators receive all they deserve. At the moment the ruling is not only a great achievement in DFIC’s long-term warfare against piracy and copyright infringement, but also an inspiring guideline to power its staff and everyone else to move further and devote themselves to the protection of the whole industry.
Established in 2000, DFIC is headquartered in Shanghai with branches in Beijing, Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Chinese Internet portal eastday.com became a shareholder of DFIC in 2007 and Chinese Internet tech giant Bytedance strategically acquired Dongfang IC in 2016.