BEIJING, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Beijing's largest-circulation newspaper has sued a popular Chinese Web site for copyright violations in what could become a media war.
The Beijing News seeks $400,000 in damages from Tom.com for having copied and republished more than 25,000 articles and photographs without permission since 2003, The International Herald Tribune reports.
China has generally had few laws protecting intellectual property, but has begun to write new laws and crack down on violators, the Herald Tribune says.
Like newspapers elsewhere, Chinese newspapers are losing readers and revenue to Internet-based media.
A Tom.com spokesman denied the alleged violations, saying the company respects copyright and intellectual-property rights.
"I can only say that there are other facts that make this more complicated."
Ironically, The Beijing News lifted an article it did not realize was fake from the spoof U.S. newspaper The Onion in 2002, The Los Angeles Times reported at the time.
The article said the U.S. Congress had threatened to move to Memphis, Tenn., or Charlotte, N.C., from Washington unless a fancy new Capitol was built.
