Jetée

August 1,2008

When Chinese search engine Baidu first went public, some folks pointed out that the main reason why people used it a lot more than Google was that it had an MP3 search engine, which let people find music to download. Google, being afraid of copyright infringement lawsuits, chose not to have such a specific search engine. Of course, once it had gone public, Baidu attracted the attention of record labels as well, and was quickly sued. However, Baidu eventually won that lawsuit -- which does seem like the right decision. Baidu, as a search engine, isn't making any copies of the file itself at all. It's merely linking to where those files are, and it's difficult to see how that's copyright infringement.

Of course, the record labels aren't known for giving up easily, and they simply sued again. However, it appears that Google has seen enough of getting beaten handily in the Chinese market by Baidu, and that initial ruling in favor of Baidu and has apparently decided to set up its own MP3 search engine on its Chinese site. The report notes that Google is first looking to get "approval" from the recording industry, though it's not clear what sort of approval is sought or needed. If it's going to be an industry approved search engine, it's unlikely to do what Google needs it to do. That is, it will most likely be quite limited and locked down, meaning people will just stick with Baidu's.

At the same time, it's still difficult to see why a separate search engine is really necessary. What's wrong with just doing a search with specific parameters included? In fact, some have already automated the process.

-- Techdirt: Google Wants To Launch MP3 Search In China


**Follow-up Story: the Launch

Google's Music Search in China Goes Live; Working With Music Labels; Invests in Top100


Bold move.

A previous article by the same author posed this postulation:

The service would offer high-quality music files embedded with a watermark to track these songs and their downloads. It would be a free MP3 downloads service with revenues through value added services like ringtones and special concert listings. Not clear yet: if the songs will be the local catalog or international ones too.

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