Originally published October 9 2005
Baidu to go to court over music downloading
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Chinese search engine Baidu has come under fire for directing people to music download sites. Baidu's lawyer said the site is not involved in the downloading, and merely performs a search. Music searches are about one-fifth of the company's total search traffic.
A Beijing court has ordered Chinese Internet search leader Baidu.com Inc. (BIDU.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to stop directing users to music download sites, in a case that may set a precedent as China seeks to show it can enforce copyright.
Beijing-based Baidu, which aspires to become the Chinese equivalent of world search engine leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research), said it planned to appeal the case brought by Shanghai Busheng Music Culture Media Co., a joint venture between EMI Group (EMI.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and a Chinese partner.
China is trying to protect intellectual property rights in a country where pirated music, movies and software are available on almost all street corners.
Traditional peer-to-peer music services allow users to directly swap songs with one another over the Internet.
"We believe that the district court order was based on a misunderstanding of the search engine technology and therefore is without merit," Baidu's lawyer Decheng Li of Beijing law firm Zhonglun W&D said in a statement.
He said it appeared the court had the jurisdiction to order Baidu to stop providing access to Web sites offering unauthorised downloads of Shanghai Busheng's songs.
The Baidu case could help to establish a precedent in China's fledgling legal system, where copyright infringement is still relatively common and Beijing is under growing pressure to get tougher with offenders, Hughes added.
Record companies recently won a landmark decision against Grokster, a peer-to-peer network that allowed users to download music from one another without permission from artists.
The film industry has had some modest successes on the piracy front in China over the last two years, winning several high-profile lawsuits in the local court system against producers and sellers of pirated discs.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml