KTV industry in Jiaxing paid for IPR violations

Recently, ten entities in KTV industry in Jiaxing, a major city in Yangtze River delta of China's Zhejiang province, has gone through a legal battle on infringing copyrights of hit records.

The court of first instance ruled that the defendant, Jiaxing Freeport Entertainment Limited (hereinafter referred to as Freeport), must stop all infringing activities and pay 27,600 yuan (4,363 US dallars) in compensation, according to information from Nanhu District Court on March 17.

In late October, 2011, Hangzhou Yingpu Intellectual Property Law LLC sued six KTV companies including Freeport for copyrights infringement at Nanhu District Court. Meanwhile, Jiaxing Intermediate People's Court also received a lawsuit on IPR violations by the same plaintiff Yingpu.

Beijing Bird Man Arts Promotion Co., Ltd., right owner of the album embodying 132 popular songs such as "Two Butterflies" performed by Pang Long, "The wolf fell in love with the sheep" performed by Tang Chao and "The love of the boat tracker" co-acted by Yu Wenhua and Yin xiangjie, authorized Yingpu as its law agent to claim rights against any third party stealing its songs.

Yingpu stated in its claim that the Freeport screened 47 songs including "Two Butterflies" and "The wolf fell in love with the sheep" to consumers for profit without the permission of the Bird Man, which infringed the reproduction rights and theatrical rights of the Bird Man and caused huge economic losses of the victim. Thus Yingpu sought a court order to stop the illegal activities and required over 90,000 yuan (14,229 US dollars) in compensation.

On March 12, Nanhu District heard the case and ruled that the Freeport must stop playing the infringing songs and delete them from its song pool, and pay 27,600 yuan (4,363 US dallars) in compensation.

"It is common to see that KTV companies distributed pop songs to consumers without paying the royalties to right owners of those songs," said Wang Limin, the attorney in charge of the case. "Nevertheless, KTV companies will never enjoy a free lunch since the Royalty Charging Standard for Kara OK Industry was promulgated by the National Copyright Administration in 2006. Any company failing to pay royalties will face legal challenge from now on."