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.” Source: Financial Times
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