According to the ruling, the publishing house is also required to make a public apology to the 11 translators or their relatives and pay 11 translators or their relatives 220,000 yuan (about US$26,506) in compensation.

The court found that in November 1998, the publishing house published a three-volume set of books featuring Nobel Prize winning literary works, with Li Bo as the chief editor and 3 million Chinese characters.

In the books, there are a dozen pieces of works translated by the 11 writers, including Ji Xianlin, a well-known Chinese linguist and translator, and Bing Xin, a late female Chinese writer of children's literature.

The defendant had not obtained prior permits from the 11 translators or their representatives when it included and used their works, nor had it paid any rewards to the plaintiffs for doing so.

The ruling said the publishing house infringed on the 11 plaintiffs' rights for naming, using and getting rewards over the translated works.

As a publisher, the defendant should bear corresponding responsibilities for infringement from subjectively committing obvious mistakes by slacking in its duties to assess matters related to literary works it publishes.

(People's Daily 06/21/2001)