A coalition of music companies is calling on businesses in other sectors to boycott Chinese search engine Baidu over its continued provision of 'deep links' to illegal sources of music.
As previously reported, the major record companies unsuccessfully sued Baidu over its MP3 search facilities – the net firm successfully argued they were not liable for copyright infringement because they did not host the illegal music files themselves. But a subsequent change in Chinese copyright laws meant the record companies won in a similar case against Yahoo! China, and they are now pursuing a new lawsuit against Baidu.
In the meantime the coalition, which includes the Music Copyright Society Of China, the China Audio-Video Copyright Association and the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry, and which is supported by a load of major and independent labels and music publishers, is calling on other sectors to not financially support Baidu – through advertising presumably – while they are, the in the music business' eyes, copyright infringers.
Explaining the coalition, MCSC Director General Jing Ming told reporters: "Resolutely countering Baidu, which is the largest and most incorrigible purveyor of pirated music in China, has become a common goal".