The major record labels have gone in for a second round of listing pirated songs is bad legal action against leading Chinese search engine Baidu and smaller player Sohu.
Universal Music, Sony BMG, Warner Music and Hong Kong-based Gold Label Entertainment lodged the new suit Monday, asking a Beijing court to order Baidu and Sohu to remove links to thousands of sites that carry pirated music.
A previous case against Baidu was unsuccessful, however the record companies believe recent changes to Chinese copyright law gives them a much stronger case this time. Yahoo China has been found guilty of copyright infringement under the new laws.
The success of Baidu has been credited to its index of music which is available from its front page, something Google has been unable to compete with until now (Google does not offer music search in China). Word leaked earlier today that Google had entered a joint venture with Top100.cn to offer free and legal music in China (details here) later this month.
The NASDAQ listed Baidu remains China’s largest internet company, but the site has been hit harder than many since the sharemarket turned late last year. From a high of $407.70 in November 2007, the stock closed at $230 a share today, down by a whopping 43.6%. Baidu shares fell 2.17% to $225 a share in after market trading.
(via WSJ)
chinese pirates are the worst
Good. No-one gives a damn about the musician, they are the ones who lose out. So… what I want to know is…. if the majors win their case, will they give any of the revenue to the artists signed to them? If so, how will they dish out the loot.
This is indeed an intellectual dilemma: do I hate RIAA and record companies more? Or do I hate People’s Republic of Piracy more?
On the other hand, this could be fun, you know, like when back in the 80s Iraq and Iran got into a big fight, and some people could not control their giggles.
More nonsense from the labels.
In ten years they might look back and say ‘yea we should have made those music sites ourselves.’ When will they get it, the only way to win this game is not in court, you cannot sue 100 companies in 100 countries….
Go get yourself some good hackers and fire the lawyers
http://thenextw...rds-vs-seeqpod/
It doesn’t matter. there are planty of this kind of site that offer similar functionalities. the record companies cannot sue everybody. the only possible way in china to get it right is through government not court. buy some important officials, you will get everything done.
i agree with “no chance”
go do your thing and out do them.. can’t fight against everyone. can you?
rambo retired in 1988.
Good luck trying to sue chinese webs.
These guys are Lawsuit-trigger-happy, they’re gonna endup suing themselves one day.
They should start realizing their product is not good enough to buy, but good enough to use it as a media channel to promote other products.
effing morrons.
rambo is back though…
On the other hand, this could be fun, you know, like when back in the 80s Iraq and Iran got into a big fight, and some people could not control their giggles.
the volume and amount of cost spent of these types of cases is effectively costing record companies a lot of their income, then they wonder why their profits are down! They are effectively wasting away their own income and with a country as big as China this is just ridiculous.
The lawcases they have attempted already, and lost most of, have cost them millions and are just laughable. They are making themselves look like fools.
These latest attempts at new music distribution via ad supported models (whether Baidu, SpiralFrog or QTrax) are unsustainable from a revenue/cost perspective. The digital ad industry is simply not big enough to support the digital music industry.
Digital music market is now at $30 billion and rising (including illegal downloads). While digital advertising is only at $20 billion and slowing. To pursue this model is damning for both the retail music industry, and their online distributors.
There’s an excellent analysis at Brooding Savage blog.
http://www.Broo...ed-music-1.html