Despite being found not guilty in a previous case, China’s most used Internet search site Baidu is in legal trouble again.
Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group have all sued the site again over illegal music downloads, deeming it a winnable cause after last month’s ruling against Yahoo China. The companies are being represented by the IFPI which noted that the record companies had also sued Sohu.com, China’s third largest Internet portal.
The IFPI has stated that China’s market of legally distributed music files is a minuscule $76 million USD, less than 1 percent of the global market.
“It’s a matter of great regret that, despite the clear precedent laid down by the Yahoo China judgment, those Internet companies are instead choosing blatant violation of copyright” and the litigation that accompanies it, said John Kennedy, CEO of the IFPI.
Result for: Downloads
The decently popular website Play.com has begun offering high quality, DRM-free MP3 music downloads for the relatively low price of 65p in the UK, and the company says it will start with about one million tracks from EMI and indie labels.
The files, which will be 320kbps, should be playable on most if not all media devices on the market, due to its MP3 format. Apple already offers EMI tracks DRM-free as well but in AAC format which is mainly supported by its iPod line. The price is also cheaper and a Play.com spokesperson has said that “we’re going to be cheaper than [Apple's] iTunes. Whatever price iTunes goes down to, we’ll be looking to go lower.”
In a recent decision, the EU has told Apple it must standardize its prices across Europe and so the tracks are expected to drop from its high 79p current price.
Play.com should also see competition from Amazon MP3 which already undercuts Apple’s track prices and offers DRM-free music from all major labels. So far Amazon MP3 is only in the US but it will hit the UK later this year.
The company says it is talking to the other major labels, “and if one or more had been quicker we might have held off the launch. We think that within the year, the others will be on board.”
Result for: Downloads
In what can equate to an “I told you so”, director Michael Bay has spoken out again about Blu-ray and its recent “victories” over the rival HD DVD format.
Earlier this week, both Netflix and Best Buy seemingly chose Blu-ray as their HD format of choice although Best Buy said it will continue to stock both. Bay, taking the time to knock HD DVD had this to say at the Visual Effects Society’s sixth annual award show, “Blu-ray’s better, and I told everyone … I was very vocal about it. I knew HD [DVD] was not going to make it.”
Ironically, despite his support for Blu-ray, his best selling HD Title is far and away Transformers which is available on HD DVD.
“Am I thrilled? It really wasn’t my fight, but remember what I said in the press? I was kind of saying HD [DVD]’s going to lose,” he added. “No one believed me.”
Despite the fact that both formats support the same video and audio codecs and each have excellent interactive layers, Bay says he simply prefers the way his movies appear on Blu-ray Discs. “It’s just sharper,” Bay added. “It’s just [that] the tools are better. I just think it’s closer to what it should look like.”
This is not the first time Bay has talked about his preference for Blu-ray. He first voiced his displeasure with HD DVD when Paramount decided to go HD DVD-exclusive, and taking Transformers with it. Bay even went as far as to say that he would not come back to direct Transformers 2 as a boycott to the decision.
“I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were Progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me,” said Bay back then.
[More]>>
