A Beijing court has ordered the Chinese Web search giant to pay US$22,939 to three writers for not protecting their copyright.

However, a petition by one of the three authors, prolific writer and blogger Han Han, to shut down Baidu's online library, Wenku, was rejected by the court, Xinhua reported Monday. Han accused Baidu of "stealing" his works "Go Like the Wind," "1988: I Want to Talk With the World" and "Freezing" by including them in the Wenku literary database and allowing them to be downloaded for free.

The Chinese writer has yet to decide whether he will appeal the court's ruling, the report added, citing Han's lawyer.