SHENZHEN Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court has recently required Shenzhen-based Internet giant Tencent to pay Alibaba Group 618,000 yuan (US$95,543) over music copyright infringement, according to a decision at the court’s first-instance trial.

Alibaba sued Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co. Ltd. and Tencent Music Entertainment Group (Tencent Music) for providing 103 unauthorized songs to the users of its AI voice assistant Dingdang.

Alibaba claimed that they have an exclusive license from Rock Records, the producer of the music pieces. The 103 songs are on the exclusive list.

Alibaba signed a contract with the Rock Records in 2018. The license validity period is from Nov. 1, 2018 to Oct. 31, 2021.

Alibaba obtained evidence of illegal use of the music pieces by the AI voice assistant Dingdang through notarization.

Dingdang is a smart speaker that provides access to Tencent’s content, including Tencent Video, Tencent Music, Tencent News and Tencent Sports.

The two defendants, Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd. and Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co. Ltd., contended that Tencent Music should not be sued in the case as the content was not provided by Tencent Music.

Moreover, Tencent suggested that the case is not within Qianhai court’s jurisdiction. Instead, the case should be heard in Nanshan District People’s Court.

Tencent Music also said that they have nothing to do with the copyright infringement claimed by Alibaba and thus requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

Qianhai court confirmed that Alibaba has the right to file the lawsuit based on the letter of authorization provided by Alibaba. However, other materials offered by Alibaba cannot prove the infringement behaviors of Tencent Music.

Alibaba requested a compensation of 30,000 yuan for each song (20,000 yuan for economic loss and 10,000 yuan for the cost to stop the infringement) from Tencent.

After considering various factors, the Qianhai court finally ruled that Tencent should compensate Alibaba 618,000 yuan in total (6,000 yuan for each song). Other requests by Alibaba were rejected by the court. 

(Wang Jingli)