Music industry prepares lawsuit against Yahoo China
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-05 10:44
The
Yahoo corporate building is seen in an undated file photo. The world's
biggest music companies are preparing a lawsuit against Yahoo China for
copyright infringement as part of the industry's efforts to crack down on
piracy. [Reuters] |
The world's biggest music companies are preparing a lawsuit against Yahoo
China for copyright infringement as part of the industry's efforts to crack down
on piracy.
"Yahoo China has been blatantly infringing our members' rights. We have
started the process and as far as we're concerned we're on the track to
litigation," said John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of the music
industry trade group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
"If negotiation can prevent that, so be it," he added.
Yahoo China officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Yahoo China is a partnership between Internet giant Yahoo Inc, which owns 40
percent of the business, and China's Alibaba.com. The IFPI has blasted Yahoo
China's search engine for providing links to Web sites that offer unlicensed
music downloads.
In a speech in Shanghai in May, Kennedy said China was the most exciting new
market in the world for the music industry but that online piracy "threatens to
strangle the fledgling legitimate digital music market before it has hardly
evolved."
Kennedy singled out Yahoo China and Chinese Internet search leader Baidu.com,
which was ordered by a Beijing judge last year to stop directing users to music
download sites.
The music industry has relied on an anti-piracy strategy
of lawsuits against illegal music services and their users paired with growth in
legal music services like Apple's market-leading iTunes Music Store. The UK
music trade group BPI is currently suing the Russian Web site AllofMP3.com.
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