BEIJING

A Chinese court ordered Sohu.com to compensate the writer of romantic mobile phone messages for lost income after the Web site sold his love notes without paying him, the writer and his lawyer said Friday.

The Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court ruled on Thursday that Sohu pay writer Fu Zhanbei 100,000 yuan (US$13,000; £á9,500) for selling his work without permission and ordered the company to issue a public apology, lawyer Wang Zhan said.

Beijing-based Sohu.com Inc. is listed on Nasdaq and is one of China's biggest Internet portals. The China Daily newspaper reported Friday the case was China's first to deal specifically with copyright violation of mobile phone text messages.

Fu said he sought 3 million yuan (US$400,000; £á290,000) from the Web site after discovering in June that 190 love notes written by him were available on Sohu.com for 0.2 yuan a piece (two and a half cents or two euro cents) although a distribution agreement between him and the company had expired in March 2006.

A 39-year-old television script writer from eastern China, Fu started writing the messages as a hobby. An average note, peppered with rhymes and romantic metaphors, is about 70 Chinese characters long.

"My dream is like the cool breeze of May, it flies from me to your window," reads part of one sample.

Fu said he had no plans to appeal the verdict but he was disappointed and angry with the low compensation amount.

"One hundred thousand yuan will not deter Sohu from conducting more violations in the future," Fu said. "It's even not a warning."

The number of Sohu's media relations office in Beijing rang unanswered Friday.

Pan Shishen, a press officer with the Shanghai No. 2 court, confirmed the verdict and compensation amount.