[By Liu Rui/Global Times]

Baidu's copyright controversies have reached a new stage. On May 10, Baidu lost a lawsuit to Shanda Literature, a subsidiary of a leading Chinese interactive entertainment media company, Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited.

Baidu, one of the world's largest Internet service providers (ISPs), has recently been under fierce attacks by an alliance of famous Chinese authors for making their works available at Baidu Library without prior consent.

Since the Internet hit China, netizens have been used to downloading movies, games, novels and music freely from the Internet. Now there is pressure for this to end.

Copyright laws in many jurisdictions provide a "safe harbor" exemption to ISPs. In general, if an ISP promptly removes copyrighted content that has been published illegally, it is off the hook. Chinese law also operates under this doctrine and was relied on by Baidu during the lawsuit.

The case was judged in Shanghai. The court found that Baidu explicitly knew of the existence of copyright violation on its website and therefore could not be exempted from infringement.

Let's say that Shanda vs. Baidu is a just cause because knowledge creators such as novelists and musicians deserve an appropriate reward for their creative work. This is a tradition in China as much as in the West.

Many Westerners believe the old Chinese proverb, "To steal a book is an elegant offense," still influences Chinese opinion.