娱乐英语新闻:China's top filmmaker gets compensation for rights abuse

BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's most internationally acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou will get 450,000 yuan (65,909 U.S. dollars) in compensation from a writer and a publisher for infringement upon his rights, a Beijing court has ruled.

    The Beijing First Intermediate People's Court ruled Tuesday that Huaxia Press and Huang Xiaoyang, author of the book "Impression of China: Zhang Yimou's Biography," had violated Zhang's image, name and reputation rights.

    The book, with Zhang's photo and autography on the cover, focused on his personal life, including his marriage, family, career development and emotional entanglement.

    It made a debut at the Shanghai Book Fair in August last year. Zhang Feng, the lawyer representing Huaxia Press, said the publisher had got hold of all the unsold books and told bookstores to take them off shelves upon receiving a legal letter from Zhang.

    Zhang and his attorney Tong Jie held the author and publisher had published his photos without authorization and had faked his autography. Most of the book's content was based on hearsay and fabrication and was written in a way as to suggest Zhang had authenticated the information.

    Huang Xiaoyang insisted his work was full of praises and respect for the filmmaker. But the electronic version of the book, carried by many Chinese websites, was followed by a flood of negative comments from the netizens who criticized Zhang's private life.

    The court said that celebrities should be more tolerant of criticism, but Huang's book apparently lacked a reliable source of information, and the ensuing misunderstanding among readers created an excessively negative evaluation of Zhang.

    It has banned reprint of the book and demanded Huaxia Press and Huang publish a formal apology to Zhang on a national newspaper.

    Zhang filed the lawsuit last year demanding a compensation of 1.5 million yuan.