MOSCOW, June 13 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court endorsed on Wednesday a settlement agreement according to which the Astrel publishing house will pay the Terra publishers $307 for unlawfully publishing the late Soviet sci-fi writer Alexander Belyaev's works.

Initially, Terra sought as much as 7.5 billion rubles ($230 mln), the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com).

Terra filed a lawsuit against Astrel in August 2009, maintaining that it owned the exclusive rights to Belyayev's novels.

Astrel argued that the copyright protection term had expired and that it published the novels legally.

There have been other publication disputes between Terra and Astrel.

In 2010, Terra submitted a lawsuit amounting to an unprecedented 7.5 billion rubles ($230 million) against Astrel. In October 2011, the court referred it for reconsideration.

The hearings in the Moscow Commercial Court were scheduled for June 13.

Founded in 1990, AST is a large publishing company in Russia. It accounts for 20 percent of the Russian book market, according to its website. AST publishes over 800 new books monthly.