A Chinese court ordered Sohu.com to compensate a script writer for lost income after the Web site sold romantic mobile phone messages he wrote without paying him, the writer and his lawyer said Friday.

The Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court ruled on Thursday that Sohu should pay writer Fu Zhanbei 100,000 yuan, or $13,000, for selling his work without permission and ordered the company to issue a public apology, lawyer Wang Zhan said.

Beijing-based Sohu.com Inc., one of China’s biggest Internet portals, is listed on the Nasdaq. The China Daily newspaper said the case was the first in China on copyright violations regarding mobile phone text messages.

Fu said he sued the Web site after discovering in June that 190 love notes he wrote were for sale on Sohu.com for about 2 1/2 cents each, although a distribution agreement between him and the company had expired in March 2006.

A 39-year-old television script writer from eastern China, Fu started writing the messages as a hobby. An average note, peppered with rhymes and romantic metaphors, is about 70 Chinese characters long.

“My dream is like the cool breeze of May, it flies from me to your window,” reads part of one sample.

Fu said he had no plans to appeal the verdict but he was disappointed and angry with the low compensation amount.

“One hundred thousand yuan will not deter Sohu from conducting more violations in the future,” Fu said. “It’s even not a warning.”

The telephone at Sohu’s media relations office in Beijing rang unanswered Friday.

Pan Shishen, a press officer with the Shanghai No. 2 court, confirmed the verdict and compensation amount.