Digital Trends

For linking to sites which facilitate piracy, Yahoo will face $27,100 in fines and be forced to modify its search engine.

Yahoo may have caught plenty of flak from Americans for its role in the arrest of Chinese dissidents last year, but as it turns out, the Chinese aren’t too happy with Yahoo either. This time, it’s over Yahoo China’s alleged role in helping disseminate pirated music in the country, and the company must pay thousands in damages.

A ruling against Yahoo was originally made in April, in a court that claimed Yahoo violated Chinese copyright laws by including links to sites with copyrighted works in search results. Yahoo claimed it couldn’t be held responsible for outside sites, and appealed the ruling, which met the same result in a higher Beijing court on Thursday.

The plaintiff in the case was the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a group representing Warner Music Group, Sony BMG and Universal Vivendi. Although the group originally sought 5.5 million yuan ($745,400 USD) in damages, the Shanghai court awarded only 200,000 yuan ($27,100 USD). In addition to paying the fine, Yahoo China must delete links