Apple sued for allegedly selling copy-protected books, report says

Several Chinese authors have sued Apple, alleging copyright violations, a new report claims.

According to Reuters, which cited a report in Chinese financial magazine Caixin, nine authors who are part of the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) have filed suit in a Beijing court against the iPhone maker for allegedly selling their copyrighted works through its iBooks marketplace. A total of 37 books are included in the lawsuit, according to Reuters, though their titles were not divulged.

The CWWCS has targeted prominent companies in the past. Some of its authors have sued Google over its online Google Books database, as well as Chinese search engine Baidu for a similar service.

Unlike those cases, where the authors nearly immediately decided to sue Google and Baidu, this time around, the CWWCS apparently tried asking Apple to remove the books first, according to the report. However, after "months" of failed attempts, the group has decided to go to court. According to Reuters, the authors are asking for $1.9 million in damages.

Apple did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.



Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.

Don writes product reviews for InformationWeek and is a regular contributor to Processor Magazine.

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Meizu MX starts selling January 1, China and HK get it first

Meizu has just revealed that its latest Android flagship, the Meizu MX will go on sale in a couple of days' time. The smartphone has been on pre-order since the start of this month and will be officially available on New Year's Day.
China and Hong Kong will be the first two countries to get the Meizu MX. The smartphone will be available across the manufacturer's official stores in China as well as in the Meizu Store in Hong Kong?s Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kok.

Meizu MX
Queue registration will begin at 9am, with queue numbers being handed out on a first come, first serve basis. The Meizu store in Hong Kong will have two lines on launch day, one for pre-order customers and one for walk-in customers with the supply for walk-in customers said to be very limited.
The launch price of the Meizu MX will be
HK$3099, which equals to about US $400. There's no saying yet when the MX availability will be extended to other countries, but we guess it won't take long.
If you are wondering if the unorthodox Meizu MX is worth your hard-earned bucks, you are welcome to check our detailed review.

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Nokia Lumia 800 still selling greatly, in some places at least

The Nokia Q4 report will be one of the most interesting things to look forward to at the start of next year. The company took a huge gamble by betting on Windows Phone for their smartphone portfolio and the holiday season sales should show if it will pay off.
And even though the quarter that saw the market release of Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 is nearing its end it's still really hard to tell if they are being well received by the market or not. We are getting all kinds of reports about their sales, so we are not even sure what to expect in the end.
For example, according to the survey done by mobile comparison shopping site MobilesPlease, the Lumia 800 accounted for a mere 0.17% of the UK smartphone sales in November. That's close to 100 less than the market share of the most popular phone according to the survey - Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II.
However, in the Lumia 800 appears to still be doing greatly in the Netherlands. The smartphone was the second best-selling device on KPN Netherlands (the country's largest carrier) at the end of November, than rose to first place at the start of this month and has been staying there ever since.
The O2 Germany most popular phones chart tells a similar story, with the Nokia Lumia 800 occupying the first spot for quite some time now. Over at T-Mobile Germany the Lumia 800 ranks 6th, behind three of the iPhone 4S versions, the black Galaxy S II and the black Galaxy S Plus.
As we already told you, we won't know the truth before the actual results are published, but for the sake of a more competitive market, we are keeping our fingers crossed the Lumia duo will turn out a success.


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