Major music labels have called on three Chinese-language web portals to stop providing music services because of copyright law infringement.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) told Sohu.com, Sina.com and Tom.com to stop selling one-time listen services of mainly Mandarin and Cantonese pop hits.
It also told the sites to apologise to the companies and artists who owned the rights to the music, and pay them damages - or else face legal action.
The case highlights the growing problem for record labels as they try to keep track of where their artists' music is being made illegally available over the internet.
The situation is considered particularly bad in China and in 1999 a group of record companies sued sites based in the country for offering free music downloads without permission.
The service offered by the three sites allows people to pick songs from the internet and send them to a friend on their mobile phone.
Popular songs found on the sites include music by Hong Kong pop diva Faye Wong, Taiwanese boy band F4 and the theme song to the film Titanic.
BBC News