The Music Copyright Society of China said at a recent press conference that a June 2008 call for an advertising boycott of China's most popular search engine, Baidu.com has gained some success and responses from Baidu advertisers.

Under an earlier boycott campaign launched by advertisers in June this year, according to the Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC), more than 20 music companies including Universal Music, Warner Music Group, EMI Group (Hong Kong), called on advertisers on Baidu to stop purchasing ads for its mp3 download channel due to infringement of music copyrights.

LG,the world's number four handset maker, stopped buying ads on Baidu beginning August. According to a representative from the Music Copyright Society of China, LG told local media that until the dispute between R2G, a Chinese copyright agency that focuses on the protection of digital music, and Baidu was settled, the company would stop advertising on mp3.baidu.com. LG was the first and, so far, the only company to date that has begun boycotting Baidu.

Baidu was not available for comment.

As a major ad buyer on Internet companies, LG's annual advertising costs tens of millions of yuan.

According Qu Jingming, director-general of the Music Copyright Society of China, besides LG, other advertisers said that they would stop advertising on Baidu's webpages if the lawsuit alleging Baidu's infringement of mp3 music copyright was settled. So far, mp3.baidu.com's advertising customers also include Huiyuan Juice, Philips and Kingsoft.

"The recent case of Sanlu tainted milk powder should be a wake-up call for enterprises. Pursuit of profit is the nature of business, but if enterprises gain their profit based on harmful products and services, not only will they destroy themselves eventually, but also destroy the industry and society. Baidu's music piracy is the same problem," Qu claims.

MP3 searches have been a main driving force for Baidu.com, bringing a great deal of traffic. LG's withdrawal is a clear sign that advertisers oppose Baidu.com's attitude, says Wu Jun, chief executive officer of R2G.net, one of the plaintiffs.

The battle against Baidu mp3 downloads began in February 2008 when R2G and the Music Copyright Society of China jointly declaring that they would not negotiate with Baidu in any way until the website stopped its alleged infringement activities. Later, major music copyright agencies, including IFPI, Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony BMG sued Baidu for music copyright infringement, and called on others to join a "Boycott Advertising on Baidu" campaign.

R2G filed a lawsuit against Baidu.com at the Beijing Haidian District People's Court on May 16, 2008, alleging that China's most popular search engine committed copyright infringement by providing illegal links to unauthorized music downloads. In a statement, R2G's Chief Executive Officer Wu Jun said that this is only the beginning of a series of anti-piracy actions his company would take against Baidu.com.

In response, Baidu.com released an identical announcement in February - when the call for a boycott began - and May - following the filing of the lawsuit - saying that it is "paying high attention to the matter" raised by R2G.

It's not the first time Baidu.com found itself in a litigation tussle. In July 2005, seven major music record companies, including Universal Music, Warner Music Group, EMI Group (Hong Kong), Sony BMG, sued Baidu.com for music copyright infringement. The plaintiff made a claim of 1.67 million yuan in damages.

The trial dragged on for two years before the court ruled in favor of Baidu.com. Guo Chunfei, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said after the ruling that her clients would file another suit which she said would stand a better chance of winning because of the introduction of the Regulation on Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information on July 1, 2006.

(China Daily 10/27/2008 page9)