On December 16, the WeChat official account of the China Music Copyright Association announced that recently, the China Music Copyright Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Association of Music Writers") had received a second instance verdict from the Beijing Intellectual Property Court on the case of the China Music Copyright Association (hereinafter referred to as the "Association of Music Writers") suing Beijing Kuwo Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Kuwo Music") for infringing the right of information network dissemination of music works.
The second instance court ruled in the judgment that Kuwo Music's appeal request cannot be established and should be rejected. The first instance court's judgment clearly established the facts and correctly applied the law, and should be upheld in accordance with the law. The first instance court determined in the judgment that Kuwo Music's actions infringed upon the information network dissemination rights enjoyed by the Music Copyright Association for the songs in question, and Kuwo Music should bear legal responsibilities such as ceasing infringement and compensating for damages. The first instance court, taking into account factors such as the popularity of the work in question, the duration, manner, nature, and degree of fault of the infringement, ruled that Kuwo Music should compensate the Music Copyright Association with nearly 120000 yuan.
Tencent Music Entertainment Group is a super large music conglomerate with four major online music platforms (QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music, and Quanmin K-song). The Music Copyright Association stated that Tencent Music Entertainment Group has been continuously and extensively using music works managed by the Music Copyright Association without permission since 2021. Despite multiple court rulings confirming infringement, the group still refuses to legally use music works, which damages the legitimate rights and interests of many music copyright owners.
The Music Copyright Association stated that it has filed multiple infringement lawsuits against Tencent Music Entertainment Group. In the effective judgments, the court has ruled that all platforms under Tencent Music Entertainment Group constitute infringement. There are also several other rights protection lawsuits against QQ Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music, and the National K Song Platform currently under trial in court.