The companies are Emperor Entertainment Group, Shanghai Huayi Group and Ocean Butterflies Best Hits Karaoke. They have given Baidu the copyright to use MP3, MV and vocal concerts as part of the Baidu Digital Music League.

International record companies and orgs have said Baidu encourages piracy by providing links to unlicensed versions of songs on other sites.

Earlier this month the Music Copyright Society of China, China Audio-Video Copyright Assn. and the Intl. Federation of the Phonographic Industry, in conjunction with an alliance of local and international record producers, called for an industry-wide advertising boycott of Baidu.com, calling it "the largest and most incorrigible purveyor of pirated music in China."

Baidu denied the charges and said it believes in copyright protection. The agreements with music companies to offer free advertising-supported music, using licensed versions of songs, are aimed at showing it is serious about combating piracy.

Last year, Baidu.com linked up with the Chinese-language label Rock Music Group in an agreement under which it licenses part of its music repertoire to Baidu users for free, and both companies share revenue from Internet advertising. There were no details given of the financial arrangements.

Last month, digital music distributors R2G filed a lawsuit against Baidu.com at the Beijing Haidian District People's Court, alleging that Baidu committed copyright infringement by providing illegal links to unauthorized music downloads.

Baidu was cleared in 2006 of helping users to download music illegally, in a case brought by some of the world's largest music companies including EMI, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony BMG.

© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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