Chinese Company Works the Old-Fashioned Way: It Steals Stuff, College Catalog Firm Says

VISTA, Calif. (CN) - CollegeSource, a nonprofit with a huge, digitized collection of college catalogues and course descriptions, says a Chinese company copied its material from the Internet and sold it to competitors. CollegeSource claims the Chinese company's computer crimes have cost it more than $10 million.

CollegeSource, formerly known as the Career Guidance Foundation, says Beijing Zhongtian-Noah Sports Science Company committed computer crimes, breached contract, and stole its information to enrich itself unjustly through unfair competition.

According to the Superior Court complaint, the Career Guidance Foundation revolutionized the catalogue record system in 1971 by making information available on microfiche. Before then, libraries and colleges had to keep catalogues for each year in which potential transfer students might have taken classes.

"A typical year's worth of paper college catalogues would fill a book shelf 7 feet tall and 23 feet long. Most universities maintained 20 to 25 years' worth of college catalogues," according to the complaint.

CollegeSource says that Career Guidance's technology allowed a library to store a year's worth of college catalogues in a shoebox.

"It is estimated that CGF saved the educational community well over $40 million per year in storage acquisition costs," according to the complaint.

CollegeSource says that Beijing Zhongtian simply took course descriptions and college catalogues from it online and sold the information to CollegeSource's competitors.

CollegeSource claims that Beijing Zhongtian knew that it was prohibited from doing that. And it says that the theft and resale of the information has cost it more than $10 million.

CollegeSource seeks an injunction, forfeiture, restitution and damages. It is represented by Darren Quinn of Del Mar.

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