An industry group says it has won a new round in a court battle with Yahoo's China arm, which is accused of helping online music pirates.
A Beijing appeals court on Thursday upheld a ruling against Yahoo China over its search engine's links to outside Web sites that carried illegally copied music, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) said.
Court officials would not confirm the report. Porter Erisman, a spokesman for Alibaba.com, the local partner managing Yahoo's China arm, said he had not seen the ruling and could not comment on it. He said Yahoo China hoped to reach an agreement with music companies to create a licensed download service.
China is a leading source of pirated copies of music, movies and other goods. Operators of pirate Web sites offer music, games and other services to attract users and make money from advertising or online commerce.
Industry groups have won a series of lawsuits against companies accused of profiting from piracy but say violations are growing despite increased Chinese enforcement.
In the latest case, the IFPI -- representing companies including Warner Music, Sony BMG and Universal Vivendi -- accused Yahoo China of violating copyrights because of links between its search engine and Web sites with 229 illegally copied songs.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled in April that Yahoo China facilitated the infringement of copyrights, awarding 210,000 yuan (US$27,000) in damages.
Yahoo China appealed, arguing that search engines should not be liable for content on outside Web sites. The IFPI said that appeal was rejected by the Bei-jing Higher People's Court.
China changed its laws on enforcement of copyrights and other intellectual property after a similar lawsuit earlier against Chinese search engine Baidu.com Inc, and Yahoo China was sued under the new system.
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