Yahoo! China to be Sued by Music Industry?

The music industry is all set to sue Yahoo! China for providing links to pirated content on their site, after a search on Yahoo! China found MP3 files of recent music releases for direct download within a few clicks. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) is now negotiating with the second largest search engine in China to avoid legal proceedings, but is likely to go ahead with the lawsuit. The IFPI, whose members include EMI, Sony BMG and Warner Music, had sued Baidu, China’s most popular search engine for similar reasons last year. The IFPA declined to say how much it is seeking in damages, but it has vowed to counter the “culture of music piracy” in China. Illegal sales of music are China are valued by the IFPI at about $400m, with about 90% of all recordings being illegal.