Beijing: First Lawsuit on Supermarket’s Use of Background Music

Music Copyright Society of China (“MCSC”) sued a supermarket in Beijing based on alleged infringing use of background music, and claimed damage of RMB16,500.

On November 4, 2008, Beijing Haidian People’s Court began to try this first copyright infringement lawsuit arising from supermarket’s use of background music since the promulgation of PRC Copyright Law.

MCSC is a collective management organization of music copyright in China, which aims at protecting music copyright holders, and representing them in infringement cases.

According to MCSC, the defendant, absent the right holder’s authorization, used a song as background music of the supermarket, which constituted copyright infringement.

MCSC indicated that around 8,000 companies in China have voluntarily paid royalties to MCSC for their use of background music in their respective stores; however, this only represents a minority of supermarkets or stores in China. Therefore, MCSC, via this lawsuit, intends to alert those companies to the potential infringing use of background music and its resulting violation of Chinese law, and in the meantime, encourage right holders to claim their rights in such cases through MCSC.

The defendant argued that use of background music in the supermarket is not for profit-making purpose, which is different from use of music in KTVs or other similar places. Thus, different rates of royalties should be applied to different types of use of music.

Though this case is still under trial, it is clear that all sorts of brand new intellectual property disputes are getting more common in China.