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The South Korean music industry has filed complaints against more than 2,700 Internet users for swapping music illegally in the country's biggest online copyright case. The suit was launched by Nofree, a copyright protection firm that represents some 60 domestic music companies.Nofree asked state prosecutors to punish NHN Corp., the country's biggest Internet portal operator, and 2,707 Internet users for allegedly illegally swapping digital music files.NHN was accused of ignoring a request to stop users from sharing music files.A US survey in 2004 found that 58 percent of South Korean Internet users have illegally downloaded movies.
In the ruling, the court went a step further by announcing that it will now be illegal for Internet users to distribute Soribada’s file-sharing software and share music files with existing peer-to-peer programs, basically ordering a complete halt to the Internet company’s current services. ``The defendant admitted that it is impossible to control individuals from uploading and downloading music files on its network. We order a suspension of Soribada’s services and the distribution of its programs to guard against the infringement of copyrights,’’ the court said
lSoribada, the nation’s largest online music service, decided on Monday to suspend its peer-to-peer file swapping service Soribada 3, forcing its 22 million members to switch to premium music services or look for other free illegal file download sources. The decision came after the Seoul Central District Court ordered the site to shut down its P2P service in a suit filed by the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers (KAPP), a music industry lobby, last August. The court on Oct. 31 also ordered Soribada fined W10 million (US$10,000) a day if it insist on continuing the P2P service. The move is another victory for the recording industry in its battle to shut down free online music services to protect its copyright earnings. Bugs Music, Korea’s largest music streaming site, also bowed to industry demands and started charging subscription fees in September. KAPP is currently in talks with other P2P services to persuade them to switch to a fee-paying service or face legal action, according to KAPP spokesman Yoon Seoung-woo. Yoon added that KAPP will take further civil and criminal action against Soribada for losses the association says it caused members by facilitating file-swapping in the past.
South Korea’s largest Internet music sharing service Soribada has decided to fight back against the record industry, saying that it is considering distributing a new program which fully supports free exchanges of MP3 music files over the Internet. The peer-to-peer (P2P) service pioneer had closed down its old Soribada 3 service last week, after the Seoul Central District Court ordered to shut down the site in July in a suit filed by the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers (KAPP). ``We have already made the new program, but we haven’t decided yet when and how we will release it,’’ said the company’s general manager Jang Seo-chan. ``We are looking for ways of profiting from the new program. We are having talks with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the record industry as well.’’ The company insisted that the new P2P software, named ``Open Soribada,’’ will not violate the current copyright laws as it simply lets users to share files in their PCs on the Internet while the company not intervening in the process at all.Once the new program is widespread, it will become practically impossible to stop file transfers between users as the process will still take place even if the company shuts down its system. Several P2P programs such as Gnutella are using such a system already, while the developers receive none of the profits.
Uri Party Representative Woo Sang Ho proposed a law requiring Internet companies to supervise file transfers between their users and stop transfers when the contents are subject to copyright. MP3s, music videos and movies are surely on the blacklist. Companies that don't abide by the proposed law risk fines up to 50 million won (US$48,000).The control system should be implemented by the Internet Service Providers through filters and monitoring tools, but the law shouldn't affect services like instant messaging and Web mail.Woo's staff claims the lawmaker will push the proposal, which could be approved by the end of this month, according to the Korea Times on Dec. 7.This initiative triggered outrage and protests from Internet companies and Internet users, who overloaded Uri Party's Web site and other Web portals like Naver with messages against the bill.The Korea Internet Corporations Association said in an official note that the idea of such a law is "naive," and it "would kill the emerging Internet industry."
Ending a three-year legal struggle over intellectual property rights and music piracy, the Korea Association of Phonogram Producers said yesterday that it had reached a settlement with Soribada, a music file-sharing Internet site, and had withdrawn all civil and criminal cases it had filed against the site operators.Soribada in Korea was the equivalent of Napster or Morpheus: a site where users could post digital music for download by other users at no charge. Although illegal, the music industry has grappled with how to attack the problem. Soribada agreed to pay 8.5 billion won ($8.8 million) to the music producers' group as compensation; part of the sum represented its earnings from banner advertisements on the Web site. In April, it will convert itself to a pay service.
The prosecution has tentatively decided not to bring criminal charges against 82 Internet users for copyright violations involving downloading movie files from file sharing Web sites. An investigator said Thursday that police raided a peer-to-peer (P2P) program operator in Seoul after securing the identities of the Internet users by combing their log-in records since last month. Under current copyright protection law, the prosecution and police are only allowed to investigate and punish individuals or companies that distribute content without authorization when the copyright holders file a complaint. However, most of the 82 Internet users are likely to go unpunished as the prosecution tentatively decided not to charge them, considering that many of them deleted the files immediately.
Users visiting Soribada P2P file sharing site will have to pay certain amounts of service fees for downloading music files, according to the Korea Music Producers' Association. "We agreed with Soribada to charge 500 won for users downloading music files labeled with digital right management, 700 won for music files without DRM and 250 won for poor sound-quality music," said Seo Hee-deok, chairman of KMPA. This is the first time that details of the deal between the leading P2P service site and music producers were unveiled, but Soribada refused to comment on the agreement. With the new service in place, 'pay-as-you-use' type of fee charging is expected to become mainstream in the online music download service market. Given that other P2P service providers are also in talks with the association for similar arrangements, Internet users will likely have more difficult times finding free music files. "We are talking with 20 P2P sites on terms of contracts," ,P2P sites including Soribada are poised to launch fee-charging service on April 1, but the launch may be delayed until filtering technology used to block sharing of some music files exclusive owned by record labels will be put in place," said Seo.
The music industry's effort to charge for music files on the Internet got a major boost on Friday as file sharing service providers blocked access to music files.Responding to music industry requests to block illegal music sharing, the association of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing service providers in South Korea have decided not to allow transfers of MP3 music files, as of Friday."We held an urgent meeting last week, and eight of 11 member companies agreed to block MP3 files until we find ways to charge users," said Jun Hyun-sung, chairman of the association. However, he refused to name the eight companies because he worries they may suffer a disadvantage in negotiations with the music industry.MP3 music files which can be played on PCs, cell phones, MP3 players and various other digital gadgets have been freely shared on the Internet in South Korea, even though the courts last year ruled such activity illegal.
The operators of Soribada (www.soribada.com), the country's largest peer-to-peer network with more than 15 million users, this week started to charge subscribers a monthly fee of 3,000 won ($3), or another option of 500 won to access their music file sharing services, previously provided for free since the company's establishment in 2000. Soribada lost a major legal battle with KAPP last year, when the Seoul Central District Court ordered the Internet company to scrap its free service model and charge subscribers for copyrighted music. Following the ruling, the site was forced to temporarily close in November last year and only reopened four months ago to run a free trial service before being transferred to the fee-based model. However, it bears further watching to see how far Soribada pushes its new fee-based model under current options, with recording companies already complaining that the music downloads are too cheap. Instead of fixed monthly fees, the recording companies are demanding Soribada charges users fees for every downloaded file. Securing music content is expected to be another challenge for Soribada, which was hit by another lawsuit last month from 56 recording companies, not signed under KAPP, over copyright infringement. With its continuing squabble with recording companies over price and difficulties in securing music content, it is uncertain whether Soribada will be able to convince customers to move to its fee-based services.
According to officials at the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), a music industry lobby, the group is planning to submit a lawsuit against a number of illegal file-sharers by the end of the week, extending their legal battle against music piracy that previously focused on peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading sites and Internet companies. Although KOMCA officials declined to confirm how many people will be included in their suit, group officials said they will be targeting ``heavy users,’’ who download more than 100 unauthorized songs from the Internet per month. The group received data from the state-run Copyright Protection Center, an organization under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which regularly monitors the activities at P2P sites and other Internet sites that allow subscribers to swap music files free of chargeThe recent move by KOMCA only proves the sad fact that recording companies have been failing to build good customer relationships in the past years,’’ also the demise of the CD-based music market has just as much to do with the loss of market share to other digital media contents such as DVDs and video games, as with the increasing peer-to-peer activities.
