IN a city first, a Shenzhen company has agreed to apologize and pay a small fine for copyright infringement committed on WeChat.

    The Shenzhen Niangmingzhai Consulting Firm agreed to pay 10,000 yuan (US$1,613) in compensation and issue a public apology to Beijing Youshi Lingyi Advertising Co. for copying an article about province-level cities, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Thursday.

    The two companies reached a settlement at the Nanshan District court on Wednesday.

    “We are not familiar with the copyright law. We just want to let more people read good articles,” the consulting firm told the court.

    Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing are the only province-level cities and come under direct authority of the Central Government.

    The Shenzhen consulting company was originally taken to court in March.

    It published the article by the Beijing firm without its consent on its public WeChat account in mid-February, two weeks after the story was first released by the Beijing firm, the Nanshan District People’s Court heard Wednesday.

    In court the Shenzhen company said it had copied the article from another source on WeChat. According to the firm, the source they copied it from didn’t say where the story had come from.

    The content of the story published by the Shenzhen company was identical to the Beijing firm’s story outside of some changes to the headline, according to the Daily report.

    The Beijing advertising agency submitted evidence to the court proving that the Shenzhen firm was gaining financially through the article.

    The Beijing firm was seeking compensation of 15,000 yuan, as well as a public apology and the removal of the story from the Shenzhen company’s social media, the report said.

    WeChat copyright disputes are on the rise in China as the social media platform becomes increasing popular.

    The Shenzhen company acknowledged its wrongdoing at the hearing. (SD News)