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Business News Digital Labels & Publishers Legal
Labels reach settlement with Chinese search engine
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 5 March 2013
The music majors have reached a settlement with Chinese web firm Sohu and its search engine Sogou, the result of which is that the net company will launch a licensed music service.
The record industry has had a long battle with Sohu, in a case that echoed its higher profile legal squabble with leading Chinese search engine Baidu. Both web firms were accused of facilitating piracy by providing easy-to-use MP3 search services, which primarily linked to unlicensed sources of content. A settlement was also reached with Baidu, back in 2011.
Under the Sohu deal, the Universal, Warner and Sony music companies and China-based entertainment group Gold Typhoon, will drop their 54 million yuan (US$8.6 million) piracy lawsuit, and instead licence a new download and streaming platform. Songou will seemingly offer that service to its users for free, presumably funding the venture through ad sales.
Sohu has also committed to make a payment to the anti-piracy office of the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry in the region.