Baidu, China's largest search engine, was ordered to pay 1,560 yuan ($226) to a Beijing-based law firm in China's first case about the protection of copyrighted content generated intelligently by software, according to Beijing Internet Court on April 25. 

The case was filed by Beijing Film Law Firm against Beijing Baidu Netcom Science Technology Co Ltd. The law firm sued the defendant for violation of the right of authorship, right of integrity, and right of information communication on networks.

According to the trial results, the defendant within seven days from the effective date of this judgment is required to publish an apology on the homepage of Baidu Baijiahao platform.

Other claims of the plaintiff Beijing Film Law Firm were dismissed. 

During the trial, the Beijing Film Law Firm, which mainly handles entertainment-related cases in the capital, said it published a report on its WeChat account on Sept 9, 2018, but a day later, one of Baidu's platforms posted the article without its permission.

"As the one that published the report first, we should be the owner of the article's copyright," the plaintiff said, asking Baidu for a public apology in addition to the compensation.

But Baidu said the report was automatically produced after collection of big data online, instead of an original article created by the law firm, "so we didn't infringe any copyright". 

Lu Zhengxin, the judge responsible for the case, said who should be given the copyright if a work is produced via artificial intelligence or big data systems, and not by a person, was the focus of the dispute, as well as a challenge in legal practice.

Content generated intelligently by software doesn’t constitute a work, but the public cannot use it freely, according to Beijing Internet Court.