China, copyright and global Internet

A Chinese court has ruled in favor of American copyright holders and against a Chinese Internet portal. This decision is being reported (subscription required) by The Wall Street Journal.

The Beijing court ordered the portal, Sohu.com, to pay more than $130,000 for the copyright infringement. And Sohu is to publish an admission of its actions.

This particular lawsuit was filed by the American Motion Picture Association after Sohu.com posted movies online. This ruling in China comes less than two weeks after the Chinese government reached an agreement on copyright protection with four English-language trade associations.