Internet Web portal NetEase Inc., one of China’s three largest U.S.-listed Internet companies, has stopped its music search service because of concerns about copyright piracy, the company said.
This move is out of concern and respect for copyrights, the Beijing-based company said in an emailed statement, quoting co-founder William Ding. The company did not offer music downloads itself and only helped users to find sites that offered free music downloads, Shanghai-based spokesman Jerry Lin said in a telephone interview from his office in Shanghai. We are in support of legal MP3 downloads, Lin said in reference to the technology that allows people to download music from the Internet.
So far, NetEase is the first of China’s major portals to stop its music search service, Jun Wu said. I hope everyone will stop pirated MP3 download services, he said. China’s laws are becoming complete and the government will start enforcing online piracy laws soon. It’s better for the portals to stop such search services as soon as possible.
China has agreed to increase criminal prosecutions of pirates of copyrighted movies and music, including those distributed online, and to delay imposing rules that would make it harder for U.S. software companies to sell to the Chinese government, according to U.S. officials.
There are more than 7,000 music sites in China, and almost all of them offer free music downloads without having obtained legal rights from music publishers, said Jun Wu, president of Beijing-based R2G.net, a company that helps recording companies track down online music pirates in China.
This is good news, Wu said. This is part of an industry trend. R2G has led an effort by music publishers to track down online pirates. The company is in the process of negotiating a deal with NetEase that will offer mobile phone downloads of music from record companies or their agents.
At a trade summit on July 11 in Beijing, Chinese Vice Premier, Wu Yi made pledges to curb counterfeiting, including coordinating with U.S. Customs and FBI agents to stem exports of illegal copies of music, movies, razors, auto parts and pharmaceuticals, the U.S. government said in a statement after the meeting.
R2G already has signed similar mobile phone download contracts with Chinese Web portal operators Sina Corp. and Sohu.com Inc. and is talking with Tom Group Ltd., Wu said.
The U.S. has seen progress but the ‘real outcome of this meeting will be known only when we see the results in the months ahead,’ U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who led the U.S. delegation in Beijing, said after the talks in July. The U.S. will monitor all commitments closely, he said.
Since making similar pledges at the April, 2004, U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, the mainland has shut hundreds of factories or shops that made or sold counterfeits and last year it more than doubled the number of investigations into foreign trademark infringements. Still, piracy and counterfeiting continues, because China hasn’t done enough to prosecute offenders, U.S. companies say.