Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Music Industry Prepares to Sue Yahoo China

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the yahouch dept.

magicchex writes "According to their chairman, John Kennedy, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) is preparing to sue Yahoo China unless negotiations are agreed upon which satisfy the IFPI. Yahoo China is the second most popular search engine in China, with the frontrunner, Baidu, already involved in an ongoing lawsuit brought by the IFPI. The BBC article is vague in its description of what exactly Yahoo China would be sued for, mentioning that it provides links to pirated music tracks but not explaining this any further other than a statement that 'a simple search on Yahoo China found mp3 files of recent releases for direct download within a few clicks.'"

12 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. I'm sure... by corychristison · · Score: 5, Interesting
    'a simple search on Yahoo China found mp3 files of recent releases for direct download within a few clicks.'
    I'm sure a search on most forms of search engines would produce similar results. Why does Yahoo China get the can for this?
    1. Re:I'm sure... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You would be surprised.
      It used to be the case, but now it seems to be getting harder (at least on google)
      Theres more spam and lyrics and legal sites coming up tops.

      By the time you find anything your on page 97 and searching in foreign languages on random domains.

      I just gave an example of looking for a specific ebook and not managing to find it by direct filename and other common things on google, but managing to get it very easily from yahoo.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:I'm sure... by snafu109 · · Score: 5, Informative
      From another article:

      The federation is also considering using a new Chinese law that came into effect July 1 that fines distributors of illegally copied music, movies and other material over the Internet as much as 100,000 yuan ($12,500). As of today, Chinese search engines operated by Yahoo China and Baidu.com provide links to other Web sites hosting illegally copied songs.

      The law says a Web site is jointly liable with the host of the pirated files for infringement ``if it knows or should know that the work, performance or sound or video recording linked to was infringing.''

      Apparently there is no such law in Western countries.
    3. Re:I'm sure... by c · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why does Yahoo China get the can for this?

      Because Yahoo China has demonstrated that they're able and willing to filter search results, pass off user account information to anyone who asks, and generally behave like asshats. Which means they totally lose the "we're just an innocent little search engine, we can't filter our output, it'd be a major hardship" common-carrier type of defense.

      That's probably not the reason, but it would be about what they deserve...

      c.

      --
      Log in or piss off.
    4. Re:I'm sure... by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You can't even find ligitimate MP3s on Google.

      Try to find this file. It's a song by my friends Posamist named "Silky Smooth".

      Search for "posamist silky smooth" (no quotes) and you only get links to some old shit on K5 mentioning the song and band. You won't find the MP3, even though I linked to all their MP3s on my (Google indexed) blog September of last year.

      Which is what the RIAA/MPAA want. A Yahoo search DOES return the file, it's the fourth result. What was that about Google not being evil again?

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    5. Re:I'm sure... by Haeleth · · Score: 4, Informative

      Search for "posamist silky smooth" (no quotes) and you only get links to some old shit on K5 mentioning the song and band. You won't find the MP3, even though I linked to all their MP3s on my (Google indexed) blog September of last year.
      Which is what the RIAA/MPAA want. A Yahoo search DOES return the file, it's the fourth result. What was that about Google not being evil again?

      Um. I searched for "posamist silky smooth" (no quotes) on Google, and the third result was this. Is that the MP3 you're talking about, or are there two bands called Posamist who have released songs called Silky Smooth?

      And even if I hadn't been able to find the MP3 you named on Google in three clicks, I'm not sure exactly how that would make Google "evil". Evil is when you contribute to human suffering, not when you don't index binary files on your text search engine.

  2. this is getting silly by joe+155 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    you can't go sueing search engines because they contain links to links of pirated mp3s... thats just what a search engine does... it seems the only way to avoid this would be to manually go through every web page, download all the mp3s that you can get to and check that they are not pirated... of course if the were you'd get sued anyway...

    --
    *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
    1. Re:this is getting silly by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Funny

      you can't go sueing search engines because they contain links to links of pirated mp3s... thats just what a search engine does... it seems the only way to avoid this would be to manually go through every web page, download all the mp3s that you can get to and check that they are not pirated...

      What's wrong with that? If it saves the life of one innocent child, isn't it worth it? We must do our patriotic duty to make sure there are no links to links to links and especialy no circular links to pirated materials anywhere on the net. Do your part good citizen and help to assure that the children of RIAA executives are assured a bright future!

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  3. In other news by giorgiofr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Search engines can be used to search for possibly illegal stuff.
    Mail can be used to send possibly illegal objects.
    Roads can be used to go to some possibily illegal destination.
    Weapons can be used to kill someone, possibly in an illegal way.
    Phones can be used to call someone and say possibily illegal things.

    Unless we want to take care of all the above mentioned "problems", I don't see why we should be concerned with search engines and specifically single them out.
    Oh wait, they have lotsa money. Now I understand.

    --
    Global warming is a cube.
  4. Stick with the agreed hype, please by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's "war against Communist Pirating China" this time, not "think of the children". Don't switch hypes too much, please, people might catch on.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Liberty out of China? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ya know, the world's turned upside down when China is sued by a "free world" organisation for having too much liberty on something...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. How this is different from other search engines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yahoo China differs from other search engines (and from other Yahoo editions) by offering a quite comprehensive MP3 search with direct download links at http://music.yahoo.com.cn/

    Examples?
    http://music.yahoo.com.cn/search.html?pid=ysearch& source=ysearch_music_result_topsearch&p=nelly+furt ado&mimetype=all
    http://music.yahoo.com.cn/search.html?pid=ysearch& source=ysearch_music_result_topsearch&p=shakira&mi metype=all