Warner Music is seeking 250,000 yuan (US$30,230) in compensation from Rongshuxia, an Internet content provider based in Shanghai, alleging the website infringed upon its copyrights by providing a free music downloads of its property without its permission.

The Taiwan-based company, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, claimed that in early 2003, it found a website with the domain name of www.rongshu.com run by the Rongshuxia company was providing a downloading service of 10 songs by Na Ying, a famous pop singer in China.

All of the songs being made available were from an album called "Na Ying, I Am Not An Angel" released in 2001 by Warner.

The plaintiff presented a copy of the CD in court as evidence.

"On the package of the CD, there is a tag reading Warner Music Taiwan Limited," said Liu Ping, an attorney for Warner, on the first hearing at Shanghai No 2 Intermediate People's Court yesterday.

"It complies with the regulations of China's current Copyright Law."

Rongshuxia, mainly known for introducing original Chinese literature, denied the charge by saying that the music column was part of a co-operative project with a local radio station.

"Rongshuxia put the songs online around April 2002," said Ji Nuo, a lawyer for the defendant. "It deleted them on April 9 of last year, which was before the plaintiff took the case to court."

With the rise of the Internet, legal problems related to online content have started to surface over the past few years.

"This problem has drawn widespread attention across the country, and there has also been heated discussion by legal experts," said Tao Xinliang, director of the Intellectual Property College of Shanghai University. "The amendment of the Copyright Law in 2001 became a hot topic at that time."

According to Tao, the amended law approved the right of communication of information on networks, which was especially written to tackle online copyright problems.

According to the law, the State Council should establish a regulation for the protection of the right to communicate information on networks.

"This regulation has not come out so far," Tao said.

He stressed that the problem was actually a global headache, which was echoed by Liu.

"Now, most websites which provide free music downloading services are illegal," Liu said. "But there is still no standard on charges over downloading music both in this country as well as worldwide."

"It is a big problem."

As for the amount of payment, Warner said that 50,000 yuan (US$6,040) was for investigation fees for the case, and 200,000 yuan (US$24,200) was considered compensation for the disputed music.

"The latter part was calculated on the basis of a charge standard set by www.apple.com, a US website," Liu explained.

"We only know what the website charges, and that people should pay 99 cents for a piece of music. That is worth around 8 yuan."

The plaintiff estimated that each of the 10 songs was downloaded 2,500 times.

Yet, Rongshuxia raised objections on the amount saying it was too high for Chinese consumers.

"In China, a CD is sold at 20 yuan (US$2.42) on average, compared with US$20 at least in the United States," Ji said.

However, the plaintiff said that the amount was only one part of the damages that have been incurred.

"Such a rampant illegal spread of music on the Internet has brought heavy damages to the sales of albums in traditional markets, which are shrinking at an annual rate of 7 per cent," Liu said.

(China Daily February 13, 2004)