Intellectual Property Law

A Beijing man who was the target of a "virtual lynching" by vigilantes after being blamed for his wife's suicide, has received a payout in China for the cyberbullying. Wang Fei was awarded about 9,000 yuan (about $1,300) after losing his job and being harassed online and at his home.

Wang Fei's wife, suspecting that her husband was having an affair, jumped from the 24th floor of a building last year after posting photos online of the woman she suspected was sleeping with her husband.

A male friend of the wife's posted Wang Fei's personal details online, and shortly thereafter Fei began receiving death threats. Vigilantes also painted "blood must be repaid with blood" over the doors of his and his parents' homes, called his office colleagues to denigrate him and picketed outside the advertising agency where he worked, forcing him out of his job. He suffered from insomnia and depression.

So Fei sued his oppressors -- the man who posted his details online and launched the vigilantism and the internet company that hosted the information -- saying he had suffered emotional distress from having his reputation tarnished and his privacy violated.

A Beijing court order the defendants to pay Fei about $1,300 in fines and court fees and to publish an apology online.

Fei had sought 135,000 yuan in compensation (about $19,600), but the three judges presiding over the case said they docked him for moral turpitude. Fei admitted in court that his wife's suspicions were correct -- he had been having an affair.

The case was the first of its kind in China.

Photo: Associated Press

See also:

• Cyberbullying Suicide Stokes the Internet Fury Machine
• Prosecutors Charge Seven People Under New Cyberbullying Law