Dangdang.com sued for selling illegal books

The popular Chinese-language online bookstore Dangdang.com was sued with selling illegally published books at a court hearing held in Beijing on Tuesday.

Zhang Hongru, president of the Beijing-based Tuanjie Publishing House, took Dangdang to court after he bought on its website in early July a book allegedly compiled by himself and found it was counterfeited and illegally published.

Dangdang was asked to provide the source of the illegal book within 10 days at Tuesday's hearing in the local Dongcheng District People's Court.

"Dangdang shall provide the evidence, otherwise it will have to take full responsibility," Wang Xuelin, the prosecution attorney, told Xinhua Wednesday.

Zhang compiled the book "Encyclopedia of World Affairs in the 21st Century" in 1993 and it was published by the Beijing Publishing House. The book he bought from Dangdang, however, was printed with his name and the Beijing Publishing House title while the content was largely different.

Zhang asked in his complaint that Dangdang should make a public apology in the China Press and Publishing Journal and pay more than 60,000 yuan ($8,700) for damaging his reputation and infringing his copyright.

According to China's Copyright Law, producing or selling a counterfeited work can be punished by an apology and payment of damages, as well as a cessation of selling the work.

Dangdang's attorney Gui Jin refused to comment. However the book at the center of the court case is still for sale on Dangdang.

It has not been the first time that Dangdang was sued for selling illegally published books. In a similar case in 2007, the court asked Dangdang to remove illegal books from its website but no compensation was ordered.

Dangdang is one of the largest Chinese-language online retailers, and online shopping is becoming popular in China, especially among young people. Chinese online shoppers spent 16.2 billion yuan in 19 major cities in the first half of 2008.