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Music Giants Sue Baidu Over Music Downloads
chengee writes "Music giants Universal, EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and their local subsidiaries are suing Chinese search engine Baidu for allegedly infringing the copyright of hundreds of songs, a press report said Friday. Looks like the party is going to be over for Chinese downloaders. But more importantly how will this lawsuit turn out in a place known for its lax copyright laws?"
This round? Probably something in spirit in favor of the RIAA, but still not as well enforced or as speedily as they would like. Not as fast as, say a tune with the lyrics like "Taiwan Independence Day, Hooray!" or "Falun Gong, get it on", where everyone would remark at the swiftness and finality of their enforcement.
But with the looming US debt owed to China, how long before they say, "No, Yankee, we don't feel like it. What are you going to do about it" and grin the grin of one who knows they hold the other by the short hairs?
China has a track record of honoring treaties and peace when they have larger goals in sight. Once they have achieved those goals... The West will see how much they really care what the rest of the world has to say and tell it what opinion it should share of the great PRC.
They're patient, they've put up with hundreds of years of crap and they know it. Has the West forgotten?
There has been a growing concern among investors over the company's prospects. Its shares dropped 28 percent in New York Wednesday after two analysts warned the stock was seriously overvalued.
And yet Google isn't?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Avast ye scurvy scaliwags, it be the plank for ye! Arr!
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Now they're going to have to stick to buying DVDs for a dollar on the streets.
Welcome to China.
Where you can walk down the street and buy hundreds of western media, IP, software and music products from corner pirate bootleggers, and nobody bats an eyelash.
But if you want to start a search engine that might help people find resources online, well, that won't be stood for. People might use that to "pirate" things.
This perfectly encapsulates the spirit of modern China: The capitalistic freedoms to lie, cheat and steal, but not the humanist freedoms to speak, organize and share information.
If you have ever been to Malaysia, Russia, or Thailand, or any of the other main locations in which there are extremely lax copyright laws, you will agree with me when I say that this will change nothing. There may be a president set, after which we will see a stronger law, which may be enforced once or twice, like the 100 bat fine placed on anyone caught selling illegal videos and music at the PanTib center in Bangkok, but after the initial constrictions, I think that life will go on for those chinese downloaded. To you guys: It may take a while for the party to get going again, but dont put down your collar just yet, threes still a lot more sex drugs and alcohol to be had.
There be no treasure here, matey! Arrrr. If tis pirates they seek, tis pirates they find in these high seas. Arrrr.
The land lubbers be afterrr us for piracy, but I swear on my right eyepatch that we be faring better than the fate of walking the plank. Arrrrr.
Baidu be giving treasure maps to this here loot and booty (points with hook hand) but for all the enterprising yellowbeards, we have ways to bury our pirate gold. Arrrr.
"Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit."
-- Redemption Song (Bob Marley)
"From the copyright point of view, we think differently than the music companies. Baidu is just a platform for music search," Liang said.
Why aren't they suing Google as well? Google makes it possible to find copyrighted material? Of course one could use a search engine to find the people who are providing illegal copies and sue them.Bradley Holt
Seems rather subjective to me. I mean, granted -- I'm no expert on China's copyright laws (but I can pretend if you'd like since this IS /.) but are their laws really lax or is the submitter just so used to his own laws that they SEEM lax. Personally, I find much of US copyright law overly restrictive and biased toward corporations.
Additionally, I don't know if laws can even be lax. Seems like it's the enforcement that should be called lax rather then the law. After all, the laws DEFINE what's legal. Perhaps lenient would be a better word?
I always wondered when I added 'filetype:mp3' to my search why Google yielded zero results. Is this a copyright thing?
-Valiss
Don't you mean more sensible copyright laws?
Carpe post meridian
So imagine if instead of doing what we all assume they're probably going to do (cave in to Sony, BMG et al), China turns round and says "Protect the artists? Sure! We'll do that - but only if you help us build a network that passes 100% of the purchase price of each MP3 directly to the artists that wrote or performed the tracks."
A few yuan multiplied by a few billion makes...?
"And the meaning of words; when they cease to function; when will it start worrying you?"
The music companies allege Baidu has made it easy for users to download illegal copies of their songs via its MP3 search engine What kind of law is that? So... how can this be considered illegal? If I tell you that if you connect to E-mule you can download the same MP3 am I commiting a crime?
My understanding, from dealing with people in New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (a government department here), is that the copyright laws in China are in fact fine, it's their enforcement that needs attention.
Never, ever lose a file again. Ever.
FTA:"He [Liang Dong, VP of Marketing -- Baidu] was reported to have met several music company executives Wednesday to discuss copyright issues, the Standard cited a source as saying, adding the goal was to "cooperate and make a platform for legal music downloads."
Liang said the discussions were "positive.""
This is the recording industry leaning on Baidu to come to terms with them. I'll bet if Baidu puts methods of discouraging illegal filesharing in place, and encourages legal (read: revenue-producing) downloads, the lawsuits will be dropped or settled out of court for a pittance.
Same MO as the earlier article today about the RIAA possible dropping huge settlement demands against Grokster et al.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
http://www.google.com/search?q="index+of"+mp3+nfo"
Directories with mp3's in them
The "nfo" is to make sure its a group release
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
That's 'hearty' as in 'a hearty fellow'.
On the high seas, it's assumed, of course, that -everyone- is hardy, else they'd have drowned already while leaning over the railing a bit too far when puking out their guts. But one greets one's fellows as 'me hearty', essentially complimenting them on their uncanny ability to remain in good spirits in the face of endless days of cold wind and salt water and fish stew yet again.
Please keep it straight, or they'll all know you for land-lubber and you'll be walking the plank in no time... if they don't keelhaul you instead.
--Parity
'Card carrying' member of the EFF.
Do you think the US is any different than China?
Yes. In many ways we're moving in the wrong direction, but we have quite a ways to go before we reach the level of the tyrants in Beijing.
And you Americans complain that the Chinese govt censors, but google does the same thing under the name of the DMCA.
No, that is not remotely close to the same thing. The DMCA sucks, but I can say that the DMCA sucks without being hauled away and shot by government stormtroopers.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Bam...instant grassroots support for Baidu. Or whatever the grassroot equivalent is in a communist state.
Unless something has changed recently the Chinese government has no respect for intellectual property.
Do they really expect to successfully sue these people?
In a separate action to that brought by EMI et al, a Beijing court has just ordered Baidu.com to pay RMB68,000 to Shanghai Busheng Music Cultural Media Company. Busheng had accused Baidu of allowing Internet users to use the Baidu search engine to find and download copyright-protected music. The court has also ordered Baidu to stop providing the download services to online users. Baidu says it plans to appeal the decision. See http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.as px?storyID=221757+19-Sep-2005+RTRS&srch=baidu.
So perhaps the copyright laws will be enforced more strictly when it's locally-generated content that is being pirated.
Arrr... So ye're Parroty Bit ye, eh?
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Really intresting to see how american big companies can cope chinese court in a suit based on chinese law !
They didn't expect Baidu to obey american law did they ?
Baidu lost first round of copyright dispute after one day of trial in the first instance. Baidu say that they will appeal.
It's not music downloads that get a person into trouble. It's music uploads.