BEIJING, March 24 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Mr. Wu Duanping, CEO of 5fad.com, revealed yesterday that the second hearing on the 5fad.com lawsuit against Baidu.com, dubbed as China's No. 1 Intellectual Property protection case, was held in the People's High Court of Beijing on March 3 and the court will make its final ruling by the end of May.
The case ranks No. 1 since the founding of the People's Republic of China in terms of the sum of compensation for copyright infringement asked by the plaintiff.
It is widely believed that the verdict will impose a far-reaching influence over the development of both the search engine service sector and digital entertainment industry in China. As a matter of fact, many parties are waiting to see what happens.
The MP3 search engine is of crucial importance for Baidu.com to gain an advantageous position in its competition with its business rival, Google.com. Once the MP3 search engine service is ruled unlawful, Baidu.com's leading position in the search engine market may topple.
When narrating the ordeal the copyright owners have to face when fighting for their legitimate rights, Mr. Wu appeared to be very much frustrated and indignant. He said he would not expect the court's final decision to be favorable for his company. "The same "deep link", the same primary facts, the People's High Court of Beijing nevertheless made different verdicts. The so- called direct copyright infringement and indirect copyright infringement in the court's rulings are really very much confusing. Whether MP3 search service constitutes copyright infringement or not? We need a clear answer from the law. In the United States, MP3-related "deep links" is definitely prohibited," said Wu.
Though sued by international record companies, Chinese music organizations and digital music companies, Baidu.com has never lost so far.
Yahoo.com China and Baidu.com have both been charged for their "deep link" services and their cases were decided by the same court in Beijing. However, the legal results they faced were totally different. Yahoo.com China lost, while Baidu.com won. That's possibly one of the reasons 5fad.com decided to take legal action against Baidu.com overseas.
About 5Fad 5fad.com, ranking among 2007 Red Herring Asia Top 100, was founded in 2003. Though headquartered in Hangzhou, it has branch offices in Bejing, Seoul, Tokyo and New York.
5fad.com enjoys the largest bank of copyrighted Chinese songs and a well- established network with the website http://www.5fad.com/ as part of it.
5fad.com is the leading digital entertainment and culture company in China. Its service network covers a total population of 300 million.
For more information about us, please visit: http://www.5fad.com/ . DATASOURCE: 5Fad CONTACT: Jason Hu, BD Director of 5Fad at +86-1585-8223-555 or +86-571-8881-2288 ext. 6999 Web site: http://www.5fad.com/
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