Xinhua, one of the most trusted Chinese official state news channels has reported that China’s ministry of culture has decided to “punish” quite a few sites for giving access to illegal music downloads for their guests. One of the most prominent name in this list having more than a dozen names, is of Baidu, China’s giant Internet portal and search engine. It was mentioned by Xinhua, that this is the list of those sites which did not change their ways even after been given frequent warnings from the culture ministry for their continuous access to illegal downloads links. However, it has not been disclosed that what kind of “punishment” the government is intending to impose.
Image via CrunchBase Baidu has immediately stated that it is completely inclined of eliminating these links which the government has specifically referred to. Whereas on the other hand, it was also pointed out that the method of indexing used by Baidu’s search engine is a non-stop constantly running process, so even if some specific files are even removed from the indexing of Baidu, it is only a matter of time until they once again are found and re-indexed to some new location this time. Hence it will only be a false impression if Baidu claims that it has removed those files from its index, with the logic that they are no more available from their previous locations or indexes.
Previously in early-April, Baidu made an official announcement revealing its intentions to shift their methods of search engine for music and inclination towards the idea of paying royalties for each song downloaded from its website. It claimed that the company will soon be launching an ad-based licensed music service, which will make every song download from its website to be completely legal. The company has intentions to completely replace the controversial illegal downloads system with this new paid music service.
Since the day one, Baidu has been seen as the best and vast market for illegal music and video downloads, as their search index often reaches very “deep links” to illegally shared material, which is technically hosted somewhere else. The approach adopted by Baidu towards this scandal has been very similar to the one by The Pirate Bay officials; it innocently implies that the company is not actually hosting the infringing material, whereas it just provides simple hyperlinks towards the files which are hosted by other sites. However, since the rank of Baidu in the Chinese market has increased significantly, and the company’s reputation for having potential links towards illegally distributed content, Baidu has faced increasing pressure from all kind of parties, including; publishers, rights holders, and now the Chinese government.
This recent announcement of “punishment” by the Chinese cultural ministry is a result after the ignorance to the warning which was previously passed to Baidu, along with several other Internet companies, more than a year ago.
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