Yahoo! China is being sued by eleven of the world's biggest music companies for music copyright infringement. The companies are asking for compensation of about 5.5 million yuan (530,000 euros).

The music companies, which include EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and Universal, allege that Yahoo!'s parent company Alibaba had provided download links for 223 songs they owned from April 10, 2006.

The suit, which was lodged at the Beijing Second Intermediate Court, said that by illegally providing downloading services for lyrics, music and mobile ringtones related to the songs, Yahoo! had infringed on the copyrights held by the companies.

In its defense, Yahoo! China claims that as a search engine, it should not be held liable for content provided by its users, adding that what it publishes are links, not downloadable content. It refused to pay the music companies.

A similar suit was brought by the music companies against China's biggest search engine Baidu in 2005, but that was later dismissed. The court has yet to make a decision on the new suit against Yahoo! China.