A BEIJING court Tuesday ordered anti-virus software maker Qihoo 360 to apologize to Shenzhen-based Tencent, putting an end to a lengthy dispute between the two parties, which was called “The War of 3Q,” Chinese-language newspapers reported yesterday.

    The Chaoyang District Court in Beijing also ruled that Qihoo should pay 400,000 yuan (US$61,538) in compensation to the instant messenger giant and delete all the accusations on its Web site against Tencent, according to the paper.

    Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) made public a draft to regulate the information service industry and ban unfair competition in the wake of “The War of 3Q.”

    The dispute began last September when 360 accused Tencent, widely known as QQ, of scanning users’ private information. QQ hit back by not allowing its users to log on to the chat tool if they had installed 360 anti-virus software.

    The dispute seemed to have been resolved in November after the MIIT became involved, ordering both parties to allow compatibility on computers, but the war of words continued.

    The latest spat came in the form of an update on 360’s official microblog on t.sina.com, blaming Tencent for placing a fake 360 official Web site with a virus on top of search results when typing 360 into the company’s search engine.

    The MIIT draft will prohibit information service providers from slandering or vilifying their competitors, making incompatible software, and forcing or misguiding users to shut down or uninstall legal products or services of other firms for any reason.

    Penalties will range from fines of between 100,000 yuan and 1 million yuan to closure.

    The draft also deals with the leaking of personal information.

    It requires information service providers to be responsible for the security of private information, and whenever they collect such details they have to list the reasons why and how the information is to be used.

    Anyone leaking information would face fines of between 10,000 and 100,000 yuan, or being shut down. (SD News)