Karaoke bars warned

The copyright administration in southwest China's Yunnan province recently told two karaoke bars to stop copyright infringement on a number of songs in their respective databases or face severe punishment, a Xinhua News Agency report indicated.

It was the first time for a local copyright administration to take such actions against copyright infringement at karaoke bars, which observers say will set a precedent for other provinces.

The Yunnan Provincial Copyright Administration sent two advance notices on administrative punishment to the two bars, namely Kunming Haoledi and Shanshijiudu, ordering them to delete related songs from their databases or face the "severe punishment" of deleting the entire catalogue.

The administration investigated the bars after receiving complaints from the China Audio and Video Association (CAVA) and Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) in January.

Zhang Yanhui, a spokesman for both CAVA and MCSC in Yunnan, says the organizations had evidence that Haoledi bars in other cities were also illegally using music and music videos. They planned to take further measures against the chain of bars.

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