Music companies slap Yahoo China with copyright suit

Eleven music companies, including Warner Music Group Corp and Sony BMG, filed a lawsuit against Yahoo China for alleged copyright infringement by providing links to unlicensed music, an industry group said.

The suit, filed in January, was accepted by Beijing's Number 2 Intermediate Court on Tuesday, Leong May-seey, Asia-Pacific regional director for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said by telephone from Hong Kong yesterday. The IFPI represents companies such as Warner, Sony BMG, EMI Group PLC and Universal Music Group.

The case against Yahoo China comes about four months after Baidu.com Inc, operator of China's largest search engine, won a suit brought by music companies claiming the company allowed illegal song downloads on its Web site. About 85 percent of recordings in China are illegal, with sales of pirated music worth US$410 million in 2005, according to the federation.



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