Three of the world's most influential music labels launched fresh legal action against China's top Internet search engine Baidu (
In a filing with a Beijing court, Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong and Warner Music Hong Kong have demanded that Baidu remove music links they say infringe on their copyrights, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said in a statement on Monday.
"All of the Chinese companies involved operate similar services based on delivering music to their users via `deep links' to hundreds of thousands of infringing tracks on third-party sites, with the aim of driving their own advertising revenue," IFPI said.
The three firms, which lost a related ruling in December, have, with Gold Label Entertainment, filed a case with fresh piracy claims against Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com (
Yahoo China also faces proceedings after refusing to comply with a December ruling by the Beijing Higher People's Court which confirmed that the firm had committed mass copyright violations, it said.
The decision to file a new case was based on the court's ruling on Yahoo China, which highlighted a recent change in China's Internet copyright regulations, a spokesman for the IFPI in London said yesterday.
"The music industry in China wants partnership with the technology companies," IFPI chief John Kennedy said.
"But you cannot build partnership on the basis of systemic theft of copyrighted music and that is why we have been forced to take further actions," he said in the statement.
A senior manager with Baidu said he was not aware of the case.
As Internet usage has soared in Asia in recent years, the music industry's revenue has fallen dramatically, largely as a result of MP3 downloads from unauthorized sources.
The industry body said more than 99 percent of all music files in China are illegitimate, causing record billions in losses.
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