James Delahunty
15 Nov 2005 4:32
Soribada, which shut down its Soribada 3 P2P service earlier this month, has revealed that it has already developed a new program which will again allow for Internet users to share unprotected copyrighted MP3 files with each other (or any files at all). The only difference this time is that Soribada will not intervene in the process at all. Soribada said the new service "Open Soribada" will not violate any copyright laws in South Korea.
The Soribada 3 P2P service was shut down as a result of a suit filed by the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers (KAPP). A court ordered that the service be shut down. However, it is still unknown whether or not Open Soribada will be released. "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."
Jang said that the company acknowledges the copyright of the music sources and that negotiations are still possible. "We have a philosophy that contents providers should be compensated (for providing songs). But the KAPP demands too much from us even though we are not making big money from the P2P service." The KAPP's suit demanded 170 million won per day from Soribada which would be unaffordable for a company of 500 million won in monthly sales.
Jang also said that the KAPP wanted 30 percent of Soribada's share as compensation for withdrawing the suit, but the organisation denies this allegation. Soribada launched in 2000 and its P2P service gathered over 22 million registered users. However the company always struggled to profit from the service and generated most revenue from additional services.
Source:
The Korea Times