The British music group EMI has opened an online music copyright information search engine in an attempt to prevent illegal Internet downloading in China.

Users can search for a song's title, singers, composers, writers, copyright agents and recording company by typing the key words at www.emimp.com.cn, Wu Jia'ai, general manager of the EMI Music Publishing Asia Group, was quoted as saying by the Beijing Star Daily.

The engine, especially designed for Chinese users, was based on a database of 1.8 million songs with copyrights managed by EMI Music Publishing, he said.

Insiders said EMI was moving towards charging for its music in the near future, as EMI was expected to license MP3 and ring tones downloads and karaoke broadcasts.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reckons at least 86 million peer-to-peer users are illegally downloading 870 million songs while 150,000 websites are illegally spreading music globally.

There is no exact figure for China, but the country's online users often incur charges of infringements of music copyright.

Fifteen domestic and foreign recording companies, including Warner Music, Global Music and Sony BMG, launched a campaign in 2003 to charge royalties from Chinese karaoke operators, who had lost a succession of lawsuits and been fined thousands of yuan.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2006)