Visual China Issues Public Apology After Being Sued by Photographer for Copyright Infringement: "Infringing Work Removed, Contributor Account Permanently Banned"

The long-standing copyright infringement lawsuit filed by a photographer against Visual China Group Co.,Ltd. (000681.SZ) has recently seen progress.

A first-instance court ruling found Visual China guilty of infringing upon the rights of photographer Dai Jianfeng regarding one of his works. The court ordered the company to publish a statement on its official website to mitigate the impact and pay compensation of 15,000 yuan.

On November 22, Visual China posted the court-mandated statement on its homepage.

The statement acknowledged that the image titled *Village Under the Milky Way*, displayed and sold by Visual China, was uploaded by a third-party contributor without authorization. The Tianjin Heping District People’s Court ruled that Dai Jianfeng holds the copyright to the work and that Visual China’s display and sale of the image violated his rights of attribution and information network dissemination. The company expressed regret for the infringement and confirmed that the disputed work had been removed from its platform following the lawsuit, terminating the infringement.

Visual China also pledged to strengthen protections for copyright holders, improve content review processes, and contribute to a healthier copyright ecosystem.

Earlier, on November 20, Dai Jianfeng posted on Weibo that the court had ruled in his favor, confirming Visual China’s infringement and ordering compensation and a public apology on its website.

The court found Visual China’s 2023 demand for over 80,000 yuan in compensation from Dai Jianfeng—via email and phone—to be clearly improper. The ruling criticized the company for inadequate due diligence, prioritizing business expansion over proper rights verification.

While the court upheld Dai’s claim regarding *Village Under the Milky Way*, it dismissed allegations concerning over 100 other images, ruling that Visual China had proper authorization to distribute them.

Visual China clarified that the infringing image was uploaded by a contracted contributor, Zhou, who had misappropriated Dai’s work. The company removed the image, suspended sales, and permanently banned Zhou’s account. Legal action against Zhou has been initiated via arbitration.

Notably, Visual China’s stock surged over 20% this week, closing at 25.34 yuan on November 21, with a market cap of 17.75 billion yuan.

The company’s Q3 2025 report showed revenue of 610 million yuan (up 0.30% YoY), net profit of 74.31 million yuan (down 9.03% YoY), and operating cash flow of 64.52 million yuan (up 1.65% YoY).

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