Eleven music companies, including Warner Music Group Corp and Sony BMG, filed a lawsuit against Yahoo China for alleged copyright infringement by providing links to unlicensed music, an industry group said.
The suit, filed in January, was accepted by Beijing's Number 2 Intermediate Court on Tuesday, Leong May-seey, Asia-Pacific regional director for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said by telephone from Hong Kong yesterday. The IFPI represents companies such as Warner, Sony BMG, EMI Group PLC and Universal Music Group.
The case against Yahoo China comes about four months after Baidu.com Inc, operator of China's largest search engine, won a suit brought by music companies claiming the company allowed illegal song downloads on its Web site. About 85 percent of recordings in China are illegal, with sales of pirated music worth US$410 million in 2005, according to the federation.
"Yahoo China respects intellectual property rights and supports the fight against music piracy," Porter Erisman, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for Alibaba.com Corp, which operates the Yahoo China site, wrote in an e-mail.
"The courts have clearly established the precedent that search-engine operators are not liable for content posted on third-party Web sites," Erisman said.
Lachie Rutherford, president of Warner Music Asia Pacific, estimates that digital music, which includes music sold online and through mobile phones, accounts for 50 percent of China's music market.
"There are problems with the laws, and there needs to be progress before content businesses can be adequately compensated [in China]," Rutherford said by telephone from Hong Kong. "For Yahoo and all major brands operating in China, the rules you should apply in China are the rules you should apply anywhere else."
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS