Case in Dutch may different to Baidu Case in China

Case in Dutch may different to Baidu Case in China

Tech law Professor Blawg logged on 20 June that Dutch courts have shut down a web site that provided links to mp3 files even though it did not host the content itself.  The decision by the Dutch Court of Appeal overturns a lower court ruling that the site, Zoekmp3.nl, did not violate copyright.  Zoekmp3 did post notices asking users not to violate copyright, though the appellate court did not buy that argument, noting that the sites users were there looking for illegal downloads. 

Details are at the BBC, ZDNet, and Heise Online.

The http://mp3.Baidu.com was find illegal when it provided the downloading links to the visitors without any annoucement. According to the judgement, Baidu “行为已超出了其所定义的“给出查询结果、提供相应的摘要信息”的搜索引擎的服务范围,其行为不是在介绍涉案歌曲的艺术价值并提供查询信息, 而是直接利用MP3文件营利, 在未能明确相关MP3文件的合法来源、未经原告许可的情况下,此行为阻碍了原告在国际互联网上传播其录音制品, 应属侵权,故被告应立即停止侵权并依法承担侵权责任,赔偿原告的经济损失。”After this judgement, Baidu.com added an announcement before one hope to download the results of the mp3 search.

However, the decision of the case in Dutch sames different to that of BaiDu. In Ducth case, Zoekmp3.nl (defendent) had argued that it did not host the content itself and carried a warning to users not to breach copyright. But this failed to convince the Court of Appeals. "Such a warning ignores the reality that the lion’s share of visitors are looking for unauthorised MP3 files,"