Bloomberg: China’s Baidu, Held by Google, Is Sued for Piracy
Excerpt: ug. 2 (Bloomberg) — Baidu.com Inc., China’s biggest Internet search engine and part-owned by Google Inc., is being sued by two local companies over alleged copyright infringement, ahead of its planned first-time share sale in the U.S.
Beijing New Picture Film Co., copyright owner of “House of Flying Daggers,” filed suit last month against Baidu for allowing users to download the movie for a fee, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Ye Zhijian, said yesterday by phone in the eastern city of Hangzhou. The Chinese-language film was released overseas by Sony Corp.
Shanghai Busheng Music Culture Media Co. in June also sued Baidu for allowing unauthorized downloads of 53 songs, according to share sale documents released by Beijing-based Baidu ahead of its planned offer of stock on the Nasdaq market in the U.S. Baidu spokeswoman Zhang Ling in Beijing declined to discuss either case.
“The copyright issue has cast great uncertainty over Baidu’s future business models and revenue,” said Gu Feng, a technology analyst at Shenyin Wanguo Securities Co. in Shanghai. “This is something investors should take into account.”…