14 DAY TRIAL // The story so far: Yahoo China published several links on its search technology that allowed users to download music for free without requiring them to pay for the licensed content. Several companies including Warner Music, filed a complaint against the giant portal, accusing the firm for providing access to unlicensed music. Today, a Beijing court ordered Yahoo China to pay $26.000 (200.000 yuan) in damages for allowing users to listen and download free music through third-party websites owned by it, The Sydney Morning Heral reported. It seems like the giant portal Yahoo plans to appeal the decision because it is impossible to delete links to all unlicensed music.
"It is technically impractical for search engines to delete links to all unlicensed music. We will definitely stress this point in the appeal as we cannot discern between licensed and unlicensed ones by technical methods" Yahoo China spokesman Xu Yang told AFP by telephone according to the same source.
Some time ago, Yahoo China was involved in a similar problem after one of the websites owned by the company showed a pornographic clip straight on the main website and available to any user for free. Although there was no filed complaint against the giant portal, it seems like the Chinese website is continuously causing problems as there are no powerful filters to organize the content. However, Yahoo struggles to increase its presence in China and lure the local clients to the company.
In the past, both Internet giant Google and Yahoo tried to conquer China but they were quickly rejected by the local emperor Baidu that is still the leader of the virtual world. At this time, the two companies are trying different techniques such as acquisitions, partnerships and new offices but the results are quite obvious.