The owners of Soribada.com, the Korean equivalent of US
file-swapping service Napster, have found themselves in legal
trouble. However, unlike the copyright actions against Napster, the
owners of Soribada are facing the possibility of five years in
prison.
Yang Jung-hwan and his brother Yang Il-hwan, both educated at US
universities, have been indicted in South Korea on criminal charges
of violating copyright law and each faces a maximum prison sentence
of five years and a maximum fine of almost £27,000 if
convicted.
Unlike Napster, Soribada does not rely on a central server to
index its files. Instead, it relies on a peer-to-peer network of
song swappers who search each other’s computers for the music file
that they wish to download, similar to the Audiogalaxy.com
service.
The Recording Industry of Korea has estimated that Soribada,
with its 4.5 million registered users, has cost local record labels
around £107 in album sales. The Yang brothers deny this, arguing
that Korean album sales have risen in the time the site has
existed.
In a similar move to Napster’s, the Yang brothers have offered
to turn Soribada into a subscription service. However, the Korean
Recording Industry insists that Soribada should cease its
activities totally before any negotiations can take place.
