Baidu Shuts Online Literature Forums to Stamp Out Copyright Violations

(Beijing) – Internet giant Baidu Inc. said May 23, it would gradually take down discussion forums on literature from its popular online bulletin board service to remove content suspected of infringing upon intellectual property rights.

The country's biggest search engine operator did not say how many posts would be affected. The firm's bulletin board service, Tieba, has over 19 million forums with discussions on many fields including novels. Authors and Internet reading sites have criticized these online communities for circulating pirated content.