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Zhongsou is guilty of copyright infringement

24 May 2008 15:25 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 4 comments

Zhongsou, the popular Chinese internet search engine, has been found guilty of copyright infringement and the authorities have ordered the internet company to "stop infringing immediately and pay the maximum penalty of RMB 100,000." There was also word that three servers belonging to the search engine were taken indefinitely.

In September 2007, the IFPI logged a formal complaint with the Hebei Provincial Copyright Bureau and further investigations led to the revelations that "copyright infringing files accessed by the delivery service were hosted on servers owned by Zhongsou in Cangzhou city in Hebei province." The ISP Cangzhou Netcom then helped authorities seize the three servers.

The administrative fine of RMB 100,000 that the site must pay is the largest fine for copyright infringement in the history of Hebei province and the first time a site of the nature of Zhongsou has been forced to pay such a fine. Yahoo China and Baidu were found guilty of similar charges but did not pay such a fine.

Leong Mayseey, Regional Director of IFPI Asia, added: "We are pleased with the maximum fine imposed by the administrative authorities against Zhongsou's blatant and deliberate infringement of our members' copyright. This should send a signal to other similar infringing music services.

"China has the potential to be one of the most dynamic digital music markets in the world, but legal services cannot compete when household names like Zhongsou deliberately break the law, abuse the rights of others and seek to drive advertising revenue by providing illegal content. We cannot tolerate such abuse of our members' rights and other internet companies that are breaking the law should be warned that we are coming after them next."

Permalink to this article | Topics: Lawsuits & Legislation MP3 & Digital Audio

Baidu facing $9 million copyright claims (7 April 2008)

Baidu sued over copyrights again (2 March 2008)

Google will enter online music sector in China (14 February 2008)

Baidu gets sued again by record industry (5 February 2008)

Baidu.com not guilty in music piracy case (30 December 2007)

Microsoft and Chinese TV maker to start joint digital entertainment project (24 June 2007)

IFPI comments on Yahoo China ruling (26 April 2007)

Yahoo! China forced to pay record labels (24 April 2007)

Music labels lose MP3 search lawsuit (19 November 2006)

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Discuss this article!
leady (Newbie) 24 May 2008 19:08
If IFPI continue doing this to the music industry in the internet, the CD label and music industry will go on declining and declining to death. All these acts will only promote p2p network growing, because it is legal to share music with friends... [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 27 May 2008 5:14
iluvendo (AfterDawn Addict) 24 May 2008 21:31
What's 100,000 RMB worth in USD ? Found out . That's $14406.70 [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 25 May 2008 0:41
bomber991 (Newbie) 25 May 2008 0:44
*Originally posted by iluvendo:* What's 100,000 RMB worth in USD ? Found out . That's $14406.70 My friend in China tells me that in McDonalds, instead of a doller menu they have a 7RMB menu. So the money is relative to them, and not really related to our exchange rate, but yeah, still comes out to around $14.ish thousand. [ + quote]
leady (Newbie) 27 May 2008 7:52
*Quote:* *Originally posted by iluvendo:* What's 100,000 RMB worth in USD ? Found out . That's $14406.70 My friend in China tells me that in McDonalds, instead of a doller menu they have a 7RMB menu. So the money is relative to them, and not really related to our exchange rate, but yeah, still comes out to around $14.ish thousand. hehe i know there was a 5 RMB menu 3 years ago [ + quote]