Han Han vs. Baidu Legal Battle Settled: Baidu to Pay Peanuts, Wenku Stays Open

Han Han is sad Baidu isn't giving him more money.

Sometimes, legal battles seem to drag on for years. Such has been the case with famed blogger Han Han’s lawsuit against Baidu over the alleged copyright infringement of his works, and the works of some other writers, on Baidu’s Wenku literature database. Now, the court has finally handed down a ruling, and it appears to be a small — but far from a total — victory for Han Han.

Beijing’s Haidian district court has ordered Baidu to pay out 145,000 RMB ($22,939) in damages to the writers, around 80,000 ($12,698) of which will go to Han Han himself. But Han Han had asked for compensation of 760,000 RMB ($119,387) and had requested that the court shut down the Wenku database and require Baidu to post an apology on its homepage for one full week. The court, however, has ruled that Wenku can stay up, although it isn’t yet clear whether Han Han will opt to appeal the decision.

It certainly seems like a rather light slap on the wrist for Baidu — $23,000 isn’t even lunch money for a corporation of that size — and the decision might not scare other internet services away from posting copyrighted content if even a celebrity like Han Han can’t seem to squeeze more than a few thousand dollars out of the company even when he has won the case. The court ruling makes it quite clear that the court feels Baidu’s copyright violations were wrong, and shutting down Wenku forever would be a bit extreme. But some will certainly argue that if China wants to present itself as taking intellectual property rights seriously, its courts might have to grow slightly bigger teeth when dealing with offenders.

[via Xinhua and Sina Tech]