State-owned Chinese film studio sues Apple for $500,000 over App Store downloads

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Tensions between Apple and China's government appeared to mount on Friday, with news emerging of a state-owned film production company having filed suit against the iPhone maker, seeking just over half a million dollars in damages.

hanuman once mistook the sun for an orange
Shanghai Animation is suing Apple, alleging improper downloads of films such as The Monkey King, pictured above.


Shanghai Animation Film Studio, the studio behind popular animated films such as The Monkey King, claims Apple has infringed its intellectual property rights by providing unauthorized download services in the App Store. The South China Morning Post reports (via Hollywood Reporter) that the suit was filed with the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, and that the court accepted the case.

The suit names Apple and its Chinese subsidiary, Apple Electronics Products Commerce (Beijing), as defendants claiming that they infringed on more than 110 of Shanghai Animation's titles, including Calabash Brothers and Black Cat Detective.

Shanghai Animation executives aren't saying much about the case.

"We want to keep tight-lipped on this case because, as we see it, it's just a litigation in which we want to get compensation [for our product]," one executive told South China Morning Post. "It's a sensitive period now since Apple is a big multinational company and it is surrounded by controversies on its practices in China."

The new case comes shortly after the Chinese government began ratcheting up pressure on Apple over its warranty policies. On Thursday, reports emerged that China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce had recommended that authorities take action against Apple over its after-sales service.

The recommendation had no specifics on what Apple had done wrong or how to fix its situation. It came, though, at the end of more than a week of reportedly coordinated attacks on Apple's image from government-connected sources.

Earlier this week, Apple made its first appearance in a Chinese court, this time on the receiving end of a patent suit. Another Chinese company alleges that Apple's Siri digital assistant infringes on patents that it has held since 2006.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 58
    lightknightlightknight Posts: 2,312member
    Well, sounds like China really wants something from Apple. Time to head out of the country?
    Apart from that, Sun Wu Kong's awesome.
  • Reply 2 of 58
    lightknightlightknight Posts: 2,312member
    What I can't fathom is how the Chinese government doesn't see that this behavior is going to backfire. So, you have the biggest market in the world and the fastest growing economy? And you're also a notoriously dangerous and insecure market to get in?

    Not investing, okthxbye.
  • Reply 3 of 58
    Now Apple at Receiving End?
  • Reply 4 of 58

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Selva Raj View Post



    Now Apple at Receiving End?


    Receiving end of what? Did that change from the 'giving end'? When? Where? How?

  • Reply 5 of 58
    see flatsee flat Posts: 145member
    From everything I've read, China is extremely corrupt. (don't know if its worst than elsewhere) There is so much money to be made quickly. All this attention from authorities sounds as if Apple refused to buy off the right people at the right time.
  • Reply 6 of 58

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post


    Receiving end of what? Did that change from the 'giving end'? When? Where? How?



    SORRY BROTHER I MEAN BAD NAME

  • Reply 7 of 58
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    I'm waiting for the headline from a Scamsung funded blogger ... 'China rumored to be considering the nationalization of all Apple related factories ...'
  • Reply 8 of 58
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    see flat wrote: »
    From everything I've read, China is extremely corrupt. (don't know if its worst than elsewhere) There is so much money to be made quickly. All this attention from authorities sounds as if Apple refused to buy off the right people at the right time.

    that or have them 'removed' ... :\
  • Reply 9 of 58
    Obviously Apple is going to have to revisit that policy of not bribing government officials. This seems like a tag team event where they are sending a message; "Help us spy on citizens and give us happy fun money, OK?"


    China is now suing over IP because some knock-off company grabs the crap from what came out in another country, and then they patent their with their home team.

    Of course, it's not like our own capitalists aren't corrupt -- they just happen to be on Wall Street and playing the money game; no product and you can't lose. Apple of course, has been thinking all these years about just making the best products -- they had to learn to lawyer up by all the beatings Microsoft gave them using their own IP against them.


    Apple needs to realize this is a game they can't win.... unless they get creative.

    Perhaps some corrupt official in China needs to get a document dump on Wikileaks -- anonymously.

  • Reply 10 of 58
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member

    <div align="center"><img src="http://photos.appleinsidercdn.com/not-hanuman-130329.jpg" border="0" width="660" height="436" alt="hanuman once mistook the sun for an orange" /><br /><span class="minor2">Shanghai Animation is suing Apple, alleging improper downloads of films such as <em>The Monkey King</em>, pictured above.</span></div>

    OMG, it's Ballmer!
  • Reply 11 of 58
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member


    China.  The new world order.  At least in the eyes of all rich chinese politicians.

  • Reply 12 of 58
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Obviously Apple is going to have to revisit that policy of not bribing government officials. This seems like a tag team event where they are sending a message; "Help us spy on citizens and give us happy fun money, OK?"
    China is now suing over IP because some knock-off company grabs the crap from what came out in another country, and then they patent their with their home team.
    Of course, it's not like our own capitalists aren't corrupt -- they just happen to be on Wall Street and playing the money game; no product and you can't lose. Apple of course, has been thinking all these years about just making the best products -- they had to learn to lawyer up by all the beatings Microsoft gave them using their own IP against them.
    Apple needs to realize this is a game they can't win.... unless they get creative.
    Perhaps some corrupt official in China needs to get a document dump on Wikileaks -- anonymously.

    I agree, perhaps 'Guy Fawkes' and his team are Apple users and will help :)
  • Reply 13 of 58
    LOL. From the country where IP piracy is rampant. How about we collect on all the American movies and illegal copies of Microsoft Windows and Office being sold on the streets of Hong Kong?
  • Reply 14 of 58
    cincyteecincytee Posts: 403member


    A campaign this coordinated is not the result of a cabal of corrupt officials who are miffed that they didn't get their cut. For all we know, some high-ranking officials may have asked Mr. Cook for a consideration a while ago which he declined to give. Perhaps this is to bolster the negotiating positions of Chinese telecoms in iPhone negotiations. Apple could even be the pawn in a quiet, back-room disagreement between China and the U.S. They simply aren't telling the public. (It's not their way, and they don't see how it would benefit them.) We simply (as if it's simple for Cupertino!) have to wait for the other shoe to drop.

     

  • Reply 15 of 58
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    LOL. From the country where IP piracy is rampant. How about we collect on all the American movies and illegal copies of Microsoft Windows and Office being sold on the streets of Hong Kong?

    Ah but remember Hong Kong is their experiment with capitalism left over from the Brits ... ... Seriously though, is the level of piracy country wide or concentrated there?
  • Reply 16 of 58
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member
    I don't know about in China, but in the US, when you submit something for inclusion there's big statement that by doing so you have ensured you have all proper rights to everything and if you are wrong, Apple is out of that game
  • Reply 17 of 58
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member


    Tim Cook should visit India and be accidentally photographed meeting with a few people while smiling profusely.  End of problems in China.

     

  • Reply 18 of 58
    There are a lot of old Microsoft fans who hate Apple now and root for Samsung. Or people who've been convinced by all the media blitz pushed by companies that want to cynically poison the well rather than innovate.

    So if Apple gets taken out by a thousand clone companies in China and sued to oblivion by every one of them claiming to have invented first after slapping a different color label on something because we do our manufacturing in China -- who's the great American company that is going to inspire and innovate? We don't make the TV sets, we don't build the computers, it's just a few years until people start getting LINUX distros with better builds from China -- just to have current drivers to work with all the widgets.

    It's not that I'm really concerned. China is just too corrupt. Even if the USA is peaking -- they have run out of the "cheap labor and no pollution controls" startup phase. Soon they'll be innovating and producing IP and suddenly wanting to protect it. It's just that their corporate chiefs will do the most expedient thing and sell out the Chinese the way ours did. Are they going to have a bidding war with the judges in all their courts? Won't the public notice when a judge for patent cases becomes a billionaire?


    So China will either have to grow up and be fair -- or they will merely promote the most corrupt corporation -- and who do they steal from when they are on top? Innovation will stall or more of it will be shrouded behind a firewall and every product gets tied to a "cloud" as if we even had a use for that -- but really, these "cloud moves" and "software services" are about putting the technology BEHIND a locked door -- so that you are tied to the company synergistically, and the widget in your hand is useless without the secret ingredient.


    I'm not quite sure where all this is going -- but there are going to be growing pains. This turf war with Apple is only the start. Once more figure out that they can make more money suing than creating -- and the infrastructure is just getting modernized away from cheap labor and dirty coal, the people are going to want to see some of the benefits from all their years of sacrifice. Costs will rise with expectations, and crooked administrators will start competing with other crooked administrators and fat cat corporate execs. The PRODUCTIVE technology workers will probably not be so naive and willing to slave away for little reward.

    The NEXT WAVE I think in China will be an exodus of their more innovative people and groups to set up shop in countries that are less corrupt,... obviously, not Samsung or this state owned film studio; they are perfectly adapted but cannot be too successful because their business model is based on taking the ideas of others.

    **** I'm sorry people, I can't get the text editor on this blog to put in a return character -- I've tried HTML code -- is there something I'm missing? *****
  • Reply 19 of 58
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lightknight View Post



    Well, sounds like China really wants something from Apple. Time to head out of the country?

    Apart from that, Sun Wu Kong's awesome.


     


    Before that would have been hard since China won't export the needed rare earth metals. Tactic to force production into the country.


     


    but a huge cache was just discovered in Japan 

  • Reply 20 of 58
    charlitunacharlituna Posts: 7,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Fake_William_Shatner View Post



    Obviously Apple is going to have to revisit that policy of not bribing government officials. 


     


    Obviously nothing of the sort. Why should Apple stoop to that slimy level, rather than move their work to other places. And get enforceable bans blocking even private 'import' of Apple products, close the official stores etc.

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