Beijing Rongxinhe Economic Information Consulting Company has brought Chinese online bookstore Dangdang.com to court because Dangdang had used Rongxinhe's online content without permission.

Rongxinhe says that it began to publish information about crystals on starhave.com to promote the sale of crystal accouterments in May 2005 and only authorized Sina.com to use the content thereafter. However, Rongxinhe found that Dangdang.com used the content without Rongxinhe's permission to promote sales on its own website.

Rongxinhe says that Dangdang.com had stopped using the content for a while after negotiations began, but it began to use it again soon after. Rongxinhe asked Dangdang.com to make an apology to both Rongxinhe and starhave.com and to pay CNY70000 in compensation.

A representative from Dangdang says these pictures have not been copied by Dangdang.com, but instead provided by its goods supplier.

Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court will hold a hearing on the case next week.