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China's biggest search engine, Baidu Inc, plans to provide free downloads of copyrighted music from next week. The move comes as a response to increasing criticism of its involvement in copyright infringement.
The new service, Baidu Ting, will see the search giant in head-to-head competition with its rival Google Inc, which has invested in Top100.cn, a website offering legal music downloads.
'Copyrighted music will be the direction of Baidu's music business in the future, and our music-search service will also be based on legal content,' said Catherine Leung, general manager of the company's digital entertainment business.
However, she said Baidu will not shut down Baidu MP3, its music-search service that enables users to search, stream and download music free of charge. The service has long been the target of criticism from the recorded music industry because it directs users to content that infringes copyright.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), which represents the United States' copyright industry groups, testified at a US Congress hearing on Wednesday that Baidu had "serious infringement problems".
This was part of the United States' efforts to urge China to promote intellectual property protection ahead of the forthcoming Strategic and Economic Dialogue between the two nations.
ST
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