Deep linking MP3s—legal or not—does not violate copyright law in China, a court has found. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court has cleared popular search engine Baidu of copyright charges brought by the music industry, saying that merely providing search results doesn’t qualify as infringement. Although China has never been known for its respect for intellectual property, the decision in this case seems to mirror others being made around the world.
The case was brought by the international sibling of the RIAA, the IFPI, back in February 2008 when it accused Baidu and a handful of other Chinese companies of supporting piracy. The charge was that Baidu’s results provided links to file sharing sites and, in many cases, direct links to illegally shared MP3s on various servers around the world. The IFPI said it unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate a resolution with Baidu, leaving it with no other choice but to sue over the deep linking practice. The labels being represented by the IFPI were seeking maximum damages totaling up to at least US$9 million, but could have gone into the billions if more songs were discovered.
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