p2pnet - rss feed: China to control ISPs
p2p news / p2pnet:- Downloading music is one of the most popular online activities in Communist China.
Now, under heavy pressure from the US entertainment and software cartels, backed by the US administration, to mend its ways, the signs are that China is about to strongly ramp up its efforts to meet industry demands that it pay far more attention that hitherto to protecting copyrights.
Music producers are, “discovering that many of the songs played online are unauthorized,” says state news organ Xinhua in feigned surprise and concern, quoting Xu Chao, “a senior official with the State Copyright Bureau,” as saying more and more disputes over music copyright have occurred recently.
“As the first dot.com company to be sued by a record company, Baidu is facing a payout of 10,000 dollars in compensation,” says the story. “Although it has decided to appeal to a higher court after losing the lawsuit, the likelihood of reversal appears slim.
“In contrast to Baidu’s argument that the plaintiff is setting a wrong target, as it’s only providing links to other websites with the songs and did not offer downloading services itself, Xu Chao from the State Copyright Bureau says search engine companies should be held responsible if they know songs belong to certain copyright owners yet still provide them.”
” ‘What we are going to control is not netizens, but website service providers. Websites providing music or movies without copyright for downloading is not allowed,’ said Xu.”
According to Xinhua, “many internet companies have pledged to stop providing MP3 search services, saying MP3 searching does not infringe the interests of copyright owners, but helps the real infringers” and, “We think we should not promote or spread music that may lead to copyright disputes,” the story has Netease’s Ren Xuejun from, which recently blocked mp3 searches, saying.
“We have the obligation to provide legal and responsible information so that intellectual property rights be protected.”
It’s “very unlikely that websites will be able to obtain music resources for free and also netizens have to pay for downloading music or movies,” she adds in the story
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See:-
most popular - Mp3s keep Baidu on top, September 6, 2005
Xinhua - China to crack down on illegal music download, September 24, 20054
facing a payout - Big Music sues China’s Baidu, September 16, 2004
blocked mp3 searches - NetEase drops music search, August 17, 2005
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September 24th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
does anyone got a link to the story where it said Baidu is no more? Its a load of crap because I can still go to the site and search for mp3’s and dl them.
September 24th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
China is one of that last truely free contries when it comes to p2p online… and now it 2 is loosing it… this is sad… Why do they even care what our entertainment cartels say…
September 25th, 2005 at 6:00 pm
The RIAA initially demands $7500.00 in protection money from children, dead people, college students, and people who don’t own a computer or have internet services, yet they settle with Google-backed Baidu for a mere $10,000? Does this strike anyone else as some kind of disproportionate slap on the wrist with a wet Chow Fun noodle, followed by a wink and a pat on the head “Now be a good ISP. Keep those bad, naughty links off your sites and maybe we’ll let you run the paid downloading service in China someday….”