By Nat Torkington
Yahoo! were found guilty of mass copyright infringement by a Chinese court, for offering a search that linked directly to illegal MP3s. Baidu, who were also being sued, did not get spanked. Why? Nominally it’s because Baidu was being prosecuted for offences that weren’t illegal at the time I suspect that really it’s because Baidu is viewed as a local (Chinese) product rather than a foreign one. China’s institutions (from the courts down to rules on currency movement and company ownership) are used to tilt the playing field in the favour of local companies. Expect to see more of this as big western Internet companies want a piece of the big Chinese market.