Three of the world's most influential music labels launched fresh legal action against China's top Internet search engine Baidu for pirating music files, the recording industry's trade body said.
In a filing with a Beijing court, Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong and Warner Music Hong Kong have demanded that Baidu remove music links they say infringe on their copyrights, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a statement Monday.
"All of the Chinese companies involved operate similar services based on delivering music to their users via 'deep links' to hundreds of thousands of infringing tracks on third-party sites, with the aim of driving their own advertising revenue," IFPI said.
The three firms, which lost a related ruling in December, have, with Gold Label Entertainment, filed a case with fresh piracy claims against Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com and its search engine, Sogou. Yahoo China also faces proceedings after refusing to comply with a December ruling by the Beijing Higher People's Court which confirmed that the firm had committed mass copyright violations, it said.