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.'"

5 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 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
  2. 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