Online video providers sue Baidu over illegal links
November 28, 2013 Category Uncategorized
Search company Baidu is being sued for providing illegal links to pirated broadcasts of online videos. A group of online video providers including Youku Tudou, Tencent Holdings and Sohu.com, as well as the China Film Copyright Association and the Motion Picture Association of America, are suing Baidu for CNY300 million for losses they claim are caused by the company’s practices. Sohu.com, Tencent, Youku Tudou and LeTV said they had set up technical barriers to block Baidu’s access to their online video content. Youku Tudou has the largest market share in the domestic online video market with a 28.3% share in terms of sales income, but it posted a net loss of CNY105 million in the second quarter this year, as content costs continued to rise. Baidu’s iQiyi and PPStream had a combined 16.9% market share, followed by Sohu’s 10% and Tencent’s 8.5%. “The alliance is clearly targeted at the rising pressure from Baidu’s iQiyi and this could push up the license fees for high-quality TV and film content next year,” said Zhou Juan, General Manager of 56.com, a smaller online video site. Baidu said it had blocked up to 5.8 million links to illegal online video content in the past six months and said it was taking the copyright issue “very seriously.” Internet consultancy iResearch said the online video market grew 37.3% from a year ago in the third quarter to CNY3.25 billion, Shanghai Daily reports. “Baidu video search pages directly host and play video content, without taking users to a third party site. It is a serious violation of the rights of video sites that have legally procured content,” said Zhou Lin, Deputy Technology Director with Sohu. Baidu is also providing access to rogue video sites that host pirated content and do not have an official license to operate in China, the group claimed. Baidu said it developed a screening system to filter pirated videos and opened a 24-hour channel to receive pirated video reports or complaints. However, Yao Jian, CEO of Youku Tudou, said his company has made reports to Baidu, but nothing changed and pirated content was still rampant online. To be able to provide high quality content to the end user, major legitimate video sites have made huge investments. Charles Zhang of Sohu said the price of TV dramas jumped to CNY1 million per episode, from zero a few years ago.
- KURT VANDEPUTTE (UMICORE) APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE FLANDERS-CHINA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (FCCC)
- Webinar: “Knowing Your Chinese Partner” – May 26, 2021, 10 am – 12 am
- EMA starts rolling review of CoronaVac, WHO approves Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use
- The Global Times warns not to politicize the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)
- Hainan to become biggest duty-free market in the world