Yahoo! accused Beijing authorities of handing out preferential treatment to its Chinese rivals after the US internet giant was found guilty of providing access to pirated music through its search engine in the country.

A Beijing court ordered the company’s Chinese arm to pay 200,000 yuan (£13,500) to labels including EMI, Warner Music, Sony BMG and Universal after links to sites offering bootlegged tracks were found on Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! was also ordered to delete any links to content that breaks copyright law.

The move, which was applauded by the US music industry, comes as China trumpets the progress it claims to have made in fighting piracy.

However, Yahoo! pointed out after the judgement that Baidu.com, the largest search engine in China, had been cleared of wrongdoing in a similar case last year. It also argued that search engines should not be responsible for the content found on third-party sites.

Xu Yang, Yahoo China's publicity director, told the state-run Xinhua news service: "Baidu.com was cleared of similar charges last year. If any mistake has been made, Baidu made the same one. The argument in both cases is essentially the same."

In November, Baidu.com was found not guilty in a lawsuit launched by seven companies that accused it of helping users to download music illegally. The case was led by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

"If the music companies had won, the whole search engine sector would have ground to a halt," a Baidu spokesman said at the time.

China, viewed a market with enormous potential, has proven a troublesome territory for Yahoo!'s legal team.

Last week, a Chinese political prisoner sued Yahoo! in a US federal court, accusing the internet company of helping the Chinese government torture him by providing information that led to his arrest.

The suit, filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act, is believed to be the first of its kind made against an American internet company.

Wang Xiaoning, who is serving a 10-year sentence in China, and his wife, Yu Ling, who is currently in San Francisco, are seeking damages and an injunction barring Yahoo! from identifying political opponents to the Chinese authorities.

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