Music Ally

More bad news for Chinese search engine Baidu, which has been facing legal action over its `deep linking’ to pirated music for some time now. A coalition of music industry firms including labels and publishers has called for a boycott of the site by advertisers and other corporations. The statement has been signed by UMG, Sony BMG, and Warner Music, as well as Universal Music Publishing, Warner-Chappell Music, EMI Music Publishing and various local companies – in total, 80% of the Chinese music industry.

Just when you’d forgotten about BitTorrent tracker OiNK (it was shut down last year), it’s back in the headlines, after six people were arrested in the UK for sharing music files on the service. Five men aged between 18 and 33, and a 28 year-old woman, were arrested in late May. Police haven’t released details of the charges, but the TorrentFreak blog claims the users were arrested under suspicion of Conspiracy to Defraud the Music Industry, and were asked to provide their account details for OiNK.