China bans downloads of unlicensed foreign music

BEIJING - China's Ministry of Culture has ordered the country's music websites to stop providing playback and download services of songs that have not been approved by the authorities.

In a statement released Monday, the ministry gave no details of how many or which websites were subject to the order, but named 100 songs that had not been officially approved for the mainland market, including "Cold Wind Blows" by Eminem, "Push That Knot Away" by KT Tunstall and "Grenade" by Bruno Mars.

According to the statement, Chinese search engines and entertainment websites were urged to check and "immediately cancel" all services related to the songs by February 28.

"Websites providing playback and download services of these songs might have committed copyright infringement and they severely disturbed the order of the country's online music market, " said the statement.

The ministry said that groups must be licensed by the government before offering on-line music services, and imported music products must be approved by the ministry before entering the market.