EMI opens copyright info search engine to help claim music royalties
9/8/2006 17:11
The British music group EMI has opened an online music copyright
information search engine in an attempt to prevent illegal Internet downloading
in China.
Users can search for a song's title, singers, composers, writers,
copyright agents and recording company by typing the key words at
www.emimp.com.cn, Wu Jia'ai, general manager of the EMI Music Publishing Asia
Group, was quoted as saying by the Beijing Star Daily.
The engine, especially
designed for Chinese users, was based on a database of 1.8 million songs with
copyrights managed by EMI Music Publishing, he said.
Insiders said EMI was
moving towards charging for its music in the near future, as EMI was expected to
license MP3 and ring tones downloads and karaoke broadcasts.
The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reckons at least 86
million peer-to-peer users are illegally downloading 870 million songs while
150,000 websites are illegally spreading music globally.
There is no exact
figure for China, but the country's online users often incur charges of
infringements of music copyright.
Fifteen domestic and foreign recording
companies, including Warner Music, Global Music and Sony BMG, launched a
campaign in 2003 to charge royalties from Chinese karaoke operators, who had
lost a succession of lawsuits and been fined thousands of
yuan.
xinhua
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