A domestic MP3 website has to pay compensation of 160,000 yuan(US$19,000) to two Hong Kong-based entertainment companies forcopyright infringement, the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Courthas ruled.
The website - www.chinamp3.com - well-known for providing MP3downloads, will now be required to stop infringing on intellectualproperty rights of the Hong Kong Go East Entertainment Co and SonyMusic Entertainment (Hong Kong), according to a judgment in the firstinstance made by the court over the weekend.
The judgment was made according to the Copyright Law and ajudicial interpretation issued by the Supreme People's Court overInternet-related copyright lawsuits, the court said.
Entertainment industry insiders say the judgment will encouragemore music producers to safeguard their rights against illegal onlineMP3 downloads.
Bai Nian'en, the lawyer representing the accused Beijing-basedShiji Yuebo Scientific Co, which owns the website, said there will bean appeal to a higher court and the judgment was not accepted asfinal.
The website provided downloads for 35 songs by famous singer KellyChen, whose copyright is owned by Go East, and 11 songs by Lo HauYam, who is distributed by Sony Music.
"The two Hong Kong companies never authorized any person to usethem online," the court verdict said.
But Bai claimed that the website only provided a link fordownloads, instead of direct download services.
"We did not intentionally violate the intellectual property rightsof the two entertainment companies, so we need not shoulderresponsibility for rights infringement," Bai said.
Judge Liu Yong said that the accused website's MP3 downloadservice provided not only links to downloads, but direct downloadservices.
"As a large-scale professional music website, the accused issubjectively wrong," Liu said.
The judge said he believed that the court's decision to confirm itwas illegal to provide online links to MP3 downloads would helpregulate online linking behaviour.
The record industry was happy about the decision.
Famous domestic music producer Song Ke said the result was amilestone in the entertainment industry's development.
Former vice-president of Warner Music, Song said Warner and othermajor domestic music producers had never brought MP3 websites tocourt before the court decision at the weekend.
"This is because MP3 websites were mainly created by music fans inthe past and at the time we thought it was not that bad," he said.
"But the current condition is quite different. They (websiteoperators) even intended to make money from the websites and areviolating our copyright in broad daylight," Song said.
He said he expected that more entertainment companies will followthe Hong Kong companies that won the court case and fight againstcopyright infringement over MP3 downloads.
Song, as the managing director of newly-established Taihe RyeMusic, said that besides MP3s, discs, tapes, and ring tone downloadsfor mobile phones would also be focused on in future efforts tosafeguard intellectual property rights.
Wang Ziqiang, spokesperson for the State Intellectual PropertyOffice said earlier that anyone who provides music downloads onlinewithout authorization would be held to be responsible according tolaw.
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