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Baidu loses first round of copyright dispute
By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-20 12:06
The legal battle between the Chinese search engine
provider Baidu.com and the Shanghai-based record agency Push Sound is set to
drag on after a first instance ruling by a district court in Beijing.
A man walks past an
advertisement for Baidu.com in Shanghai in this August 4, 2005 file photo.
Baidu, the NASDAQ-listed firm, said on Monday that it would appeal to a
higher court after the Haidian District Court ruled on Friday that Baidu
infringed the copyrights of 34 songs belonging to Push Sound.
[Newsphoto] |
Baidu, the NASDAQ-listed firm, said on Monday that it would appeal to a
higher court after the Haidian District Court ruled on Friday that Baidu
infringed the copyrights of 34 songs belonging to Push Sound.
The court said Baidu should stop providing download links to the songs and
pay 68,000 yuan (US$8,380) in compensation to Push Sound, which is related to
the international record giant EMI.
In June, Shanghai-based Push Sound filed a lawsuit against Baidu, claiming
Baidu offered a music download service for 46 songs on its website that harmed
the interests of Push Sound in its distribution of music on the Internet.
Push Sound asked for 460,000 yuan (US$57,000) in compensation and demanded
Baidu make a public apology in the Legal Daily newspaper.
Music downloading is one of the most popular services on the Internet, which
accounts for about 20 per cent of traffic for search engines like Baidu and
Yisou under Yahoo!.
Liang Dong, vice-president and spokesman for the top Chinese search engine,
insisted that it had not infringed the copyrights of Push Sound.
"We understand Push Sound's action against us, but it is targeting the wrong
people," said Liang.
Baidu said it only provided links to other websites with the songs and did
not offer downloading services itself so it should not be held legally
responsible.
Baidu added that the ruling was the first instance so was not the final word.
It will appeal to a higher court.
Baidu, a superstar on the NASDAQ last month when its initial public
officering price rose by almost 400 per cent on the first day, saw its stock
price fall by 4 per cent to US$78.35, when the ruling was announced.
Push Sound declined to make a comment on the case Monday.
A professor in intellectual property right (IPR) law with Peking University
believes Chinese Internet companies do not pay enough attention to IPR
protection, but the ruling seemed to be too harsh for a search engine company.
"It is too much to put all the responsibility on Baidu," said the professor,
who declined to be named.
She said that in some countries search engine providers could be sued if they
direct their results to contents infringing others' copyrights, but in China
there is no such rule.
However, search engine companies are held responsible if they know songs
belong to certain copyright owners yet still provide them.
The plaintiff also needs to prove that search engine companies use the
results for commercial purposes, so the professor suggests compensations of
2,000 yuan (US$247) per song may be too high.
She said the court should reach a balance between encouraging new
technologies and protecting copyrights.
NetEase.com, another NASDAQ-listed Chinese Internet portal, stopped providing
MP3 search services from August 15, saying that MP3 searching does not infringe
the interests of copyright owners, but helps the real infringers.
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