Earlier today, Yahoo announced that it has paid an undisclosed amount in damages and costs to the Singaporean media company Singapore Press Holdings. These damages were agreed upon after an amicable settlement was reached in a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Yahoo publicly acknowledged that its Yahoo Singapore news site reproduced content from Singapore Press Holdings and that they did so without the company’s approval. Yahoo issued a joint statement with Singapore Press Holdings. In the statement Yahoo said that it, "deeply regretted the actions of a few Yahoo employees in Asia-Pacific, and that those employees have been terminated or disciplined."

The agreement also includes Yahoo promising not to “knowingly or intentionally infringe SPH’s copyrights,” while emphasizing that as publishers, it will “strive to respect the intellectual property rights of others in areas that they conduct business in."

The lawsuit was filed against Yahoo by Singapore Press Holdings back in November of 2011 at Singapore’s High Court. The lawsuit cited 23 articles from its newspapers that it claimed Yahoo reproduced over a 12-month time period. Last August Singapore Press Holdings upped the number of articles to 254. This number came from including a time period going back to July of 2010.

In an article printed by Singapore Press Holdings they state was believed to be the first of its kind in Singapore. 

Yahoo initially denied wrongdoing. In December of 2011 they filed a counter suit, but dropped it last year. 

Singapore Press Holdings is the ruling newspaper publisher in Singapore. It offers news content to paying subscribers of its stable of print and online publications. Yahoo Singapore provides free domestic and international news coverage to Internet users.

Singapore Press Holdings, Yahoo and the state-owned broadcaster MediaCorp and its Internet-media partner Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp. are competitors in the state's growing online-advertising market.

Singapore Press Holdings says that it previously approached Yahoo in April of 2009 for a license to reproduce their content, but negotiations broke down in early 2010.