Game Developers Sue Baidu Over Links To Infringing Content

from the learn-from-the-past dept

Wed, Nov 23rd 2011 1:06pm — Zachary Knight

In the latest round of content providers being unable to tell the difference between a link and infringing content, a Chinese game developers group, Content Provider Union (CPU), is suing the Chinese search engine Baidu for copyright infringement. CPU claims that Baidu has provided over 350 games for download and is liable for over $4.7 million in damages. In its defense, Baidu claims that it only provides links to 3rd party websites that actually provide the game downloads and is not liable for infringement that occurs at those sites.

This type of lawsuit is really nothing new for Baidu as it has been sued in the past and prevailed in court. Those court rulings stated that merely linking to infringing content was not enough to be held liable for infringement. Why these game developers think the outcome will be any different is anyone's guess. Perhaps these game developers should look to the music industry for some tips on what should be done. After losing repeatedly to Baidu in court, three major labels decided it would be better to enter a licensing deal with Baidu. I guess those labels realized that if people were using Baidu to find music, it would be better for those fans to be pointed to legal alternatives rather than infringing services. The same could work for game developers. If they were to partner with Baidu to offer a licensed game store or download service, those people who use Baidu to find games would be able to get them directly from the developers. That is a win for everyone. Let's hope that these game developers don't enter into the same vicious six year cycle the music industry went through.

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Filed Under: china, links, video games
Companies: baidu

9 Comments

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anonymous, 23 Nov 2011 @ 1:19pm

i hope they do enter into the same '6 year cycle' as the music industry did. i hope they then lose. perhaps that way they will learn that the correct way to move forward is to offer people what they want, sensibly priced and not offer what the company wants at ridiculous prices. that would be another win for both sides!
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out_of_the_blue, 23 Nov 2011 @ 1:35pm

Baidu is run by commies.
I suppose no one will dispute that. You never know here. The fanboys go off on sight, reactionary dogs that they are.

Anyway, Baidu has more influence in the Chinese economy / gov't than you're visibly taking into account. It can probably get away with anything short of vivisection, so I wouldn't read too much into this if you think applies elsewhere.

Why is someone suing then? Well, there's some slight chance the courts will reach a good decision. -- After all, the Chinese recently executed bankers for skimming, while Western gov't just burdens taxpayers to bail out those thieves. So in some ways, China's justice is better...
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Cory, 23 Nov 2011 @ 1:41pm

While I agree with your point here, still, Baidu is very shady. A few years ago I spent a week blocking them from deep-linking to my (freely downloadable cc licensed) mp3's because they were showing up in searches for a famous Burmese pop singer. Was costing me 1-2g per month of bandwidth. The same results did not show up in any other search engines.
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Rikuo (profile), 23 Nov 2011 @ 1:57pm

Re: Baidu is run by commies.
Why are you spending $100 million on a movie?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Nov 2011 @ 2:10pm

LOL , Baidu is a multi-billon dollar business, they will crush them in court like cockroaches...
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Nov 2011 @ 2:41pm

Re: Baidu is run by commies.
Specially since those that will die are being harvested for their organs before and after death.

They help to save other peoples lifes(the rich people there I mean)
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Butcherer79 (profile), 24 Nov 2011 @ 2:25am

Re: Baidu is run by commies.
"the Chinese recently executed bankers for skimming, while Western gov't just burdens taxpayers to bail out those thieves. So in some ways, China's justice is better..."

In what 'ways' exactly? From the example you gave, you're insinuating that the death penalty is apt for theft, oh yeah, that's much better.
SOMETIMES I read your posts, and, while not agreeing with most of what you say, I presumed intelligence and a sound state of mind - Then you post something like this and shatter those illusions completely. It's a shame really, I like a good discussion (when you can get over the constant, hypocritical criticism of DH and anyone else who opposes your veiws). I guess you can be fooled some of the time...
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2011 @ 7:03am

We have several of our own servers runnning our internet operations and Baidu is the worst. Last year we had a tech who put a robots.txt file in our main directories. Baidu apparently copied the file and is still using the disallow options as directories to traverse. It generated so many errors trying to gain access to disallowed directories that I had to block their IP. So now NO MORE BAIDU. Thanks but no thanks as I have enough search engines.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Nov 2011 @ 10:18am

Re:
They "very shady" because they mistook you music for someone else's music? WTF?!
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