Music industry prepares lawsuit against Yahoo China

Quakester2000

July 5, 2006

RTV71 used our news submit to tell us that Yahoo
China is facing the music (no pun intended) from the music industry in China . Yahoo China is accused of infringing the music industry's copyrights by providing links to websites that offer links to illegal music downloads. The music industry via the International federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is willing to negotiate with Yahoo china if they want to avert legal action.

The music industry has said that the Chinese market has big potential for them but that music piracy is a major problem. The music industry estimates that up to 85% of all music in China is pirate due to illegal downloads and CD copies. Last year China's biggest search engine was ordered by a Beijing judge to stop directing users to sites that offered illegal music downloads.

Yahoo China was not immediately available for comment. Yahoo China is a joint operation between Yahoo and Alibaba.

The world's biggest music companies are preparing a lawsuit against Yahoo China for copyright infringement as part of the industry's efforts to crack down on piracy."Yahoo China has been blatantly infringing our members' rights. We have started the process and as far as we're concerned we're on the track to litigation," said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the music industry trade group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. "If negotiation can prevent that, so be it," he added. Yahoo China officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Yahoo China is a partnership between Internet giant Yahoo, which owns 40 percent of the business, and China's Alibaba.com. The IFPI has blasted Yahoo China's search engine for providing links to Web sites that offer unlicensed music downloads.

In a speech in Shanghai in May, Kennedy said China was the most exciting new market in the world for the music industry but that online piracy "threatens to strangle the fledgling legitimate digital music market before it has hardly evolved." The IFPI estimates that 85 percent of all music consumed in China is pirated. Kennedy singled out Yahoo China and Chinese Internet search leader Baidu.com, which was ordered by a Beijing judge last year to stop directing users to music download sites.

Source: News