There have been many false dawns and don’t hold your breath, but there is positive news in the fight against piracy in China. According to Chinatechnews, China’s Ministry of Culture have issued a directive that says “irregular and illegal music websites” will be closed down. Websites have until the 10th January to comply with this directive.
We assume this means the end of the MP3 part of Baidu, and several other major players in this space. Hao Ting – one of China’s largest music streaming websites – actually closed doors on December 28th, with speculation rife that the end was due to an inability to obtain legal status for its enormous library of tracks.
We will be watching interestedly to see how this pans out.