In a statement issued on Thursday, the Music Copyright Society of China said it had filed a lawsuit in January in Beijing accusing Baidu.com of using 50 songs illegally on its website and demanding compensation.

The move comes after the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) won a landmark case against Yahoo! China for copyright infringement in December, although on the same day it lost an appeal against an earlier decision in favour of Baidu.com in a similar case.

Baidu is also under pressure from other copyright owners and their representatives. On February 4 IFPI announced that Universal Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Hong Kong have filed proceedings against Baidu.com in the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People’s Court asking the search engine to remove all links to copyright infringing tracks that they own the rights to.

The same three companies, plus Gold Label Entertainment, have filed a case at the same court against search engine Sohu and its associate company Sogou, which is accused of offering mp3 search services that allow users to search for websites offering unlicensed music downloads – a process known as deep linking.

Sohu is the official sponsor of internet content service for the Beijing Olympic Games.