Beijing's Haidian district court on Monday ruled that Baidu, China's most popular search engine, must compensate three writers, including the famous Han Han, for failing to protect their copyrights, Xinhua reported.

Baidu must pay a total of 145,000 yuan (US$22,939) to the writers for failing to take action to prevent their works from being pirated, the court said.

Renowned writer Han Han, one of the three writers named in the case, saw his petition to shut down Baidu's "Wenku" literary database rejected by the court.

Han accused Baidu of "stealing" his works "Go Like the Wind," "1988: I Want to Talk With the World" and "Freezing" by including them in the Wenku literary database and allowing them to be downloaded for free.

Han had asked for 760,000 yuan (US$119,387) in compensation, as well as asked the court to shut the Wenku database down.

He also asked Baidu to post an apology on its home page for seven consecutive days.

Han's lawyer said it is not yet known if Han will appeal the ruling.

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