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.

The US Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act of 2008, which gives the Justice Dept. authority to prosecute civil copyright cases, expands seizure powers in civil copyright cases, and creates a high-level (more…)

The US Democrats have kicked off their convention in Denver, just after presidential candidate Barack Obama announced that his VP running mate would be Joe Biden.

CNET has been doing some digging into Biden’s voting record when it comes to technology and copyright, and points out that he’s a “staunch ally” of Hollywood and the major record labels when it comes to copyright law – in contrast to the expectation that Obama himself will liberalise US copyright laws if he gets into power.

“Few Americans will cast their votes in November based on what the vice presidential candidate thinks of copyright law. But these pro-copyright views don’t exactly jibe with what Obama has promised; he’s pledged to ‘update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated.’”

As the article points out, US voters will probably be more concerned with Biden’s knowledge and record when it comes to foreign affairs, but the music industry will be following the presidential election closely to guess how future US government policy may develop in its area too.

Big news in New Zealand, where a new copyright reform bill has taken a liberal approach towards anti-circumvention. The bill allows consumers to bypass DRM if their intended use is legitimate – for example time-shifting and format-shifting (the latter includes ripping music from CD to other devices). “The (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…)