Baidu reacts to government pressure to enforce copyright

Baidu chose April 26 2012, the 12^th World Intellectual Property Day, to launch a link on its homepage to China's National Copyright Administration (NCA). The move was a clear attempt to promote the protection of IP online and comes at the same time as court cases, new Regulations and draft amendments to the PRC Copyright Law (中华人民共和国著作权法) have increased the pressure on internet companies to clean up their act.

“This could become a trend for ISPs, as they want to establish good corporate images,” said Georgia Chiu, of counsel at Hogan Lovells in Shanghai

Last year Baidu was the defendant in a much-publicised case from music companies Sony, Warner and Universal. After mediation, the internet company agreed to pay royalties to the three companies for hosting 128 songs. The case was selected by the Supreme People's Court (SPC) as one of the Top 10 IP Cases of 2011 (2011年知识产权保护十大案件发布).