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A Beijing court has rejected Yahoo China's appeal against a fine of 210,000 yuan (US$28,400) for infringing a 2006 copyright law.
The suit, filed in January by the 11 members of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), accused Yahoo China of infringing copyright by deep linking, through its music search engine, to MP3 files distributed by third party Web sites without the copyright holders' permission.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court found Yahoo China guilty on April 24, imposing the 210,000 yuan fine -- far less than the 5.5 million yuan sought by IFPI -- and Yahoo China promptly appealed. The Beijing Higher People's Court rejected that appeal on Thursday.
Yahoo China is wholly owned by Chinese company Alibaba.com, in which Yahoo Inc. owns a 44 percent stake. The offending music search engine allowed visitors to Yahoo China's site to find and play copyright music tracks without leaving the Yahoo site, according to the IFPI.
IFPI blames such sites for what it says is an abnormally low level of music sales in China: around $76 million in 2006, representing less than one percent of global recorded music sales, according to the group. It estimates that 99 percent of music downloads in China infringe copyright.
A separate suit filed by IFPI against Chinese search engine Baidu.com in September 2005 resulted in an acquittal for Baidu. IFPI appealed the ruling, but its appeal too was rejected Thursday, leaving Baidu in the clear, said IFPI spokesman Alex Jacob.
"The Baidu case was judged on the old copyright law, so our appeal was rejected," Jacob said.
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