Music Ally

Chinese search giant Baidu has been found guilty of copyright infringement for providing unauthorised links to lyrics in its Baidu MP3 Lyrics search service. The case was brought by Chinese publisher MCSC which found 50 of its songs available on the service. According to local reports, Beijing People’s Court, Haidian district ordered that Baidu remove the links and pay 50,000 Yuan (GBP £4,750 or USD $7,300) plus 10,000 Yuan (£950) for litigation expenses.

While Baidu is expected to appeal, the case is nevertheless a notable step by the Chinese courts to assert the validity of copyright in the country. Baidu is China’s biggest search engine with over 60% market share; and also operates the largest online music service in the country, providing links to MP3 files hosted elsewhere on the net. Since the Baidu MP3 Search service links to music files on the web the company claims that it is not infringing copyright as it is not actually hosting the files. This claim was contested by the IFPI which fought a legal battle against Baidu but uiltimately lost in January this year when the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court ruled that linking to content does not constitute infringement.

The ruling against the IFPI appeared to be a huge blow against advocates of stronger intellectual property protection in China; but some observers have suggested that rather than proving that the Chinese courts are not sympathetic to copyright concerns, it instead suggests that the IFPI failed to bring a proper case.

This latest ruling in favour of a local music publisher certainly indicates that music rights owners in China can be heard; and it’s not the first time that Baidu has been slapped down by the courts. In 2005  Shanghai Busheng Music Culture Media Company, an affiliate of EMI, won an infringement case against Baidu’s MP3 Search feature. However, at the time press reports suggested that the MP3 Search feature may be disabled as a result, but Baidu continued regardless. It’s not yet clear whether this latest legal ruling will have any discernable effect on the search engine’s claim that linking to content is fine; or whether it marks a small but significant turning point in the way the Chinese courts are prepared to back rightsholders.

Chinese search engine Baidu has prevailed in its battle with the music industry over ‘deep-linking’ to copyright-infringing music downloads.

Baidu and rival Sohu were sued by UMG, Sony BMG and WMG in early 2008, but the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court has ruled against the labels, saying that providing search results does not break copyright law. JLM Pacific Epoch cites a lawyer’s claim that the case fell through “because the plaintiffs failed to identify sites hosting unauthorized music downloads”.

The IFPI isn’t happy, needless to say. “The judgments in the Baidu and Sohu/Sogou cases are extremely disappointing, and we are considering our next steps,” says a statement. “The verdicts do not reflect the reality that both operators have built their music search businesses on the basis of facilitating mass copyright infringement, to the detriment of artists, producers and all those involved in China’s legitimate music market.”

Around five million songs a day are being downloaded from Google’s ad-supported music service in China, according to its partner Orca Digital. The service, which launched in March, has signed up five advertisers so far, including Nokia, Apple and Volkswagen, who are spending a total of 2.5 million yuan (around $370,000).

Orca says it expects to have 30 advertisers signed up within the next six months, and that by the end of this year, the service will have a catalogue of 1.1 million tracks.

But what about rival search engine Baidu? Earlier this week, ad-supported music service Qtrax announced a deal with Baidu that would see the latter funneling music search traffic to Qtrax. However, the deal was announced by Qtrax rather than Baidu – which now seems significant.

Why? Here’s a new quote from Baidu’s spokesperson. “The partnership with Qtrax regards text-based information, such as singer backgrounds; it has nothing to do with the music itself”.

Correction: We’ve been contacted by Qtrax regarding a misquote in the original article that we referenced. Here is the updated quote:

“According to Qtrax’s agreement, Baidu will direct traffic to Qtrax from two specific portals, the Entertainment Portal and the Qian Qian Music Online sites, when Qtrax has the queried artist or song in its catalogue.  The Baidu artist pages will include a button linking to Qtrax for artists in the Qtrax catalogue.”

More news from China – a market coveted and feared by music firms in equal measure for its size and piracy – with Google apparently about to launch an MP3 search engine to compete with local search site Baidu. (more…)

In February, several major labels filed a lawsuit against Chinese web portal Baidu for copyright infringement, citing its deep-linking to sites offering illegal music downloads. Well, the case is now going to court – the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court to be precise (it’s like the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective (more…)