The Chinese government is being sued for $2.2 billion (£1.4 billion) for allegedly copying a computer program designed by an American firm. A Californian company claims that China stole its work and used it to create Green Dam, a controversial censorship program that China initially wanted to install on every new computer in the country. China claimed that Green Dam would help protect children from pornographic and violent content on the internet, but its critics claimed that the program also blocked politically sensitive information. After a public outcry, a plan to force computer manufacturers to put Green Dam on all computers sold in China was dropped. However, discs containing the program were shipped with computers and Green Dam was installed widely across China's schools. As of last June, 56.5 million copies of Green Dam had been distributed across the mainland. Cybersitter claims that more than 3,000 lines of its software code were lifted by the Chinese, a finding that was initially reported by independent researchers at the University of Michigan, who also said that Green Dam left users exposed to viruses. However, Cybersitter's claim hinges on whether American copyright law can be applied to a product almost wholly distributed in China. The lawsuit also accuses the computer manufacturers Lenovo, Haier, Sony, Toshiba, Acer, Asustek and BenQ, of failing to respond to cease-and-desist letters asking them to stop distributing Green Dam. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not comment on the suit. Tomato Source
This really depends on the court... Could easily go either way But from my perspective, I think it's China's fault initially
There's the legal and the practical side of this matter. From what I've read in other sources previously (don't have the links right now, but I'll edit them in if I find them), it was pretty obvious to technicians who coded the software that the copying was blatant. So the law would lean towards the software company, if not technically to the letter, then certainly in the spirit of copyright law. That said, considering that even a giant company like Microsoft, arguably the world's most powerful software company, cannot yet get the PRC to comply with eradication of pirated copies of the various Windows versions, it may become a pyrrhic victory for Cybersitter to be on the right side of the law as a practical matter. But, despite the above, there is a major difference here in that the offender in this case, is not some back alley disc duper, but the Chinese government itself that is the defendant; it is actively distributing the pirated content and has full control of the software at issue. Time will tell. Interesting case.
