Beijing: Digital Copyright of Thesis Infringed?

482 master and Ph.D. degree holders (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) sued Beijing Wanfang Data Co., Ltd. (“Wanfang Data” or the “Defendant”) with respect to the Defendant’s infringing use of the Plaintiffs’ thesis. The trial judgment held the Defendant lost to 364 of the Plaintiffs, and should cease collecting thesis, make public apologies on its website, and compensate those winning Plaintiffs for the damages and reasonable litigation expenses.

According to the Plaintiffs’ claim, Wanfang Data, without due authorization, collected the Plaintiffs’ thesis, scanned them into digital files, and included the same into a “China Thesis Database”, which was available for search by various libraries across the nation after their paying certain subscription fees to use Wanfang Data’s system.

The Plaintiffs claimed that Wanfang Data’s conduct was illegally publishing, copying, disseminating, and selling the Plaintiffs’ thesis for profit, which constituted copyright infringement.

During the trial, Wanfang Data counter-argued that China Science and Technologies Information Research Institute (“CSTIRI”) is the designated institute to collect thesis under Chinese law, and the Defendant was authorized by CSTIRI to develop a database of such thesis. The Defendant further argued, given that the database was only available to users of college and other nation-wide libraries (as opposed to the general public), the purpose of this database was to promote exchange of research results, instead of for-profit-sale. In addition, the Defendant also pointed out that 324 of the Plaintiffs have signed certain agreements with their respective graduating universities, authorizing those universities to dispose their thesis, and those universities have all entered into agreements with CSTIRI, authorizing CSTIRI to include those thesis into the database.

According to the trial court, Wanfang Data infringed copyright to thesis of 158 of the Plaintiffs who have not entered into any agreements with their graduating universities with respect to the disposal of their thesis. Among the remaining 324 Plaintiffs, the agreements 206 of them have entered with their graduating universities were insufficient to justify Wanfang Data’s use of the disputed thesis, thereby rendering the Defendant’s conduct as copyright infringement too.

Thus, 364 of the Plaintiffs were entitled to damages in the range from RMB2,300 to RMB5,100 individually, which added up to over-RMB1 million-damage in total to be paid by Wanfang Data. With respect to the remaining 118 of the Plaintiffs, due to their agreements with graduating universities, plus the latter’s agreements with CSTIRI, the trial court determined that Wanfang Data’s conduct did not infringe their respective copyright.

Upon announcement of the trial judgment on October 16, 2008, the attorney representing the Plaintiffs indicated that the Plaintiffs would further continue this case with an appeal.