IFPI, the international music association, announced that it will sue Yahoo China for copyright infringement (1, 2). Yahoo China is run by Alibaba.com Corp. and 40 percent owned by Yahoo! Inc. The lawsuit is based on a new Chinese law that fines not only content hosters, but also other web sites that know or should know about it.

It is not explicitly stated, but it's fair to assume the music companies insist on a takedown process similar to hosting web sites. Search engines must remove links to copyrighted files or sites once they're notified of infringement. The search sites typically fight such filtering on grounds of technical difficulty, expense, and competition.

There are a few ironies here. The first is that the search engines have brought this on themselves. They have capitulated to Chinese government demands to censor politically-sensitive results. They have already demonstrated the capability and will to filter results. This greatly reduces the impact of their arguments and credibility.

The second irony is that while the IFPI appears to have the law on its side, it would be a pyrrhic victory. This is a limited solution that applies to China and not to the U.S. and many other countries. Illegal downloaders will certainly find other search engines, directories, and channels to obtain files. Strategically, studies and reports show that the real pirates are the criminals running CD duplications plants, not consumers downloading files (1, 2).

The result is that this announcement is a high profile PR win for the record lables. But its short and long-term effect will be trivial. It only distracts the industry from both attacking the real pirates and developing viable digital business models.