Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Yahoo! Slammed Over Piracy By Chinese Court

Posted by Zonk on from the dangerous-precedent dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Setting a precedent likely to have far-ranging consequences, a Chinese court has once again lambasted Yahoo! China over piracy concerns. The search firm is (according to the court) infringing on intellectual property rights by allowing copyrighted materials to be downloaded from the internet via search results. 'John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, or IFPI, said in a statement Thursday. "By confirming that Yahoo China's service violates copyright under new Chinese laws, the Beijing court has effectively set the standard for Internet companies throughout the country."'"

4 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. No surprises by superbus1929 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yahoo earned this. They bent over backwards to do business with China, and now they're paying the karmic price. Personally, after what they did to those journalists and bloggers, I love it.

    --
    Let's stop dilly-dallying and just change "-1: Overrated" to "-1: Disagree" or "-1: Doesn't Subscribe to Groupthink".
  2. Piracy != Privacy by \\ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Man, I thought that headline was "Yahoo! Slammed Over Privacy By Chinese Court", and I was really confused.

  3. In the same article by hackingbear · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Separately, the court also upheld a ruling on a similar case against Internet company Baidu. A lower court in November 2006 had found that Baidu had facilitated copyright infringement. But because this case was filed under older Chinese copyright laws in 2005, the company was not liable for copyright infringement, the IFPI said.

    "We are disappointed that the court did not find Baidu liable," Kennedy said in a statement. "But that judgment was about Baidu's actions in the past, under an old law that is no longer in force. Baidu should now prepare to have its actions judged under the new law. We are confident a court would hold Baidu liable as it has Yahoo China."

    So maybe Baidu has fixed their acts?

    Oh... wait... is Baidu.com a Chinese company? That's hard to say because the fact is most successful Chinese Internet companies, including alibaba.com, which was funded by Softbank and Yahoo and which now owns Yahoo China, are funded and run by western VCs. But then that would answer your concern. Who cares the thousands of little real Chinese websites like the pirate DVD sellers across streets in China.

  4. Re:OH NOZ! by dwater · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is not only CD and DVD. Many Chinese companies are known to copy popular brands of goods, with names and appearance slightly modified, but far inferior performance and quality. A search engine is probably least of the concerns when it comes to piracy. This ruling will not improve the slightest bit of China's piracy problems. Indeed. The interesting thing about what you say is that the non-CD/DVD things are not sold to Chinese people (much) - the Chinese people I know, know full well the quality is crap and avoid places like that like the plague. DVDs are different, since they're good enough, and the real ones are too expensive (and difficult to find).

    No, the clothing in particular is sold only as a tourist attraction. I'd say that the names and appearance aren't even slightly modified either - they're exactly the same, except that they don't last too long (perhaps they're 'seconds' or have failed quality control).
    --
    Max.