A Shantou woman who won a plagiarism case against a Beijing publisher has lodged an appeal because she is unhappy with the apology ordered by the judge, reports Shantou Daily.

By chance, Ke Yan came across her own article about a travel experience, originally published on a Sina.com forum, in a book entitled "Do-It-Yourself Travel in China".

China Friendship Publishing Company neither acknowledged her as the author nor asked for her consent.

Together with 17 other netizens whose articles were also plagiarised, Ke filed a lawsuit against the company with the Beijing Chaoyang District People's Court.

The authors won the case and received a combined total of 8,000 yuan (US$965) in compensation, including 1,480 yuan (US$176) for Ke.

But Ke and some other plaintiffs are unsatisfied with the ruling because the publisher was ordered to apologize on the Sina.com forum only.

The book is distributed nationwide. Why should the apology only appear on the web forum, Ke asked.

The 8,000 yuan, meanwhile, was calculated at the normal monthly remuneration rate for authors.

But the plaintiffs spent 7,200 yuan (US$867) just to hire a lawyer, on top of other expenses necessary to secure evidence and travel to Beijing for the trial. Ke demanded that the publisher apologize on national media and pay the plaintiffs' litigation costs.

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