AfterDawn: Tech news

Music labels lose MP3 search lawsuit

Written by Dave Horvath @ 19 Nov 2006 1:36 User comments (15)

Music labels lose MP3 search lawsuit Several music labels including the likes of EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal Music collectively lost a lawsuit in which they tried to take down a Chinese MP3 search engine.
Baidu.com faced a lawsuit from the aforementioned companies for providing links to copyright protected music. The overturn in the ruling, however stated that the links provided were downloaded on third-party webservers and not from Baidu themselves. The companies involved with suing Baidu had demanded a formal public apology, termination of service and payment of over $216,000 in "damages".

Baidu had argued that its service provides the same type of services as other search engines in which links are provided for content of third party webservers. In their statment, Baidu representatives said, "If the music companies had won, the whole search engine sector would have ground to a halt".

Score one for the little guy as record labels try every possible angle to reap more money out of its digital battle.



Source:
BBC

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15 user comments

119.11.2006 15:29

Right decision :)

219.11.2006 16:22

Anyone remember the torrentspy.com lawsuit? They had the same defense and won. The music labels will realize sooner or later that suing organizations like torrentspy.com and baidu.com are useless. If they dont have the files in their possesion they cant be sued for distributing them,etc.

319.11.2006 17:18

This is great news to hear. Well done to Baidu.

419.11.2006 22:05

Is about time the big ones share the pie. The music labels companies takes everything out of the musicians. Now they want internet. NO WAY!!!!! Keep it going BAIDU!!!

520.11.2006 06:50

Great news, I hope they counter sue the RIAA for damages and out of pocket costs.

620.11.2006 14:42

good news

725.11.2006 04:29

HA HAA HAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAA! FINALLY - A court ruling that the record labels actually lose. HA HAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

825.11.2006 04:38

Finally the courts deal a blow to the money grubbing suits at the greedy major record labels. Keep up the good work!

925.11.2006 10:14

What is the URL if it is still up?

1025.11.2006 15:00

The RIAA finally decided to sue someone who had the money to defend themselves and got embarressed for their troubles. I'll try to feal sorry for them when I stop laughing. =)

1125.11.2006 19:07

wonderful decision but how does that relate to the Limewire and other P2P "faciitators" that are being sued. I am new to this area so pardon me if I mess up but wasn't Napster just P2P?? Did Baidu just provide lists of songs and web addresses without facilitating the P2P linkup with software?? If so then it would be legal to post your song list on a central database and initiate sharing. Just how the sharing would be done is another story?? On the other hand if Baidu functioned like Napster or Limewire then it is hard to reconcile the different outcomes in the cases.

1226.11.2006 13:34

Yes and No. Napster wasn't really a p2p program- it was centralized. P2P is totally safe, at least for now. This site didn't have a 'big list'; they're a search engine, like google. It just does a broadcast search of the web for .mp3 files, but they don't actually host anything. P2P services work in a similar fashion: searching sends out a broadcast request for any files that match the criteria. The only difference is that one searches the internet, and the other searches p2p networks. This service, like p2p programs and sites, didn't actually host any files, so it's not responsible for what gets searched for. Could you sue google because minors search for porn on it? No way--same thing here.

1327.11.2006 13:49

WHAT?? They LOST!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! :..D Bout time those greedie bastards got a boot in the ass for once! It would be even better if all those greedy bastards (ie RIAA MPAA etc etc) went bankrupt. >sigh< alas A guy can dream can't he? ;)

1427.11.2006 23:51

If p2p is safe then why is limewire being sued?? what does limewire do that Baidu doesn't?? Does Baidu provide software for p2p sharing like Limewire does?? If not is that a significant difference??

1528.11.2006 06:45

They are like a biting fly. If they are swatted away by one they will just light on another. If there is blood to suck, they want it. They are hoping to get lucky then create a president. I keep saying we need to push to make copywrites 5 years instead of 100. That will take the wind out of their sails!

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