“There Seems to Be No Legal Problem for the New Music File Sharing Service.”

Mr. Yang, Il-Hwan (31), who newly started a music file sharing service with a new type of music file sharing program ‘Soribada 2’, opened his mouth for the first time since the ‘Soribada incident.’ Mr. Yang, who neglected the media after receiving a court order of stopping the service, did an interview for an hour and a half with the reporter while heading toward the Inchon International Airport with light traveling outfit on the evening of the 26th.

Mr. Yang said, “The new service does not require searching at the central server, so there will be no legal problem,” and “there was a case in the Netherlands that a programmer won the similar file sharing law suit.”

When I asked about his ‘stone heart’ that his opening of new service one and a half month after the service closing order of the prosecute, he answered, “I just introduced one of many sharing programs I’ve been developing.” He added, “As a matter of fact, the last service was just a ‘beta version,’ but I had to keep the service open because too many people used the service.”

The users of the Soribada 2 can use the service as same as the former Soribada service. The profit models such as advertising and bell sound download are kept as it was. Since it reduces the burden of server but keeps the service, it might be a better business model.

Mr. Yang explained, “I’ve never made it with business in mind, but I am satisfied that a lot of people used the ‘work’ that I made,” and “the profit model such as advertising is the minimum necessary mean to keep the service open.”

He responded to the question how he felt about the TV debate about the Soribada, “I watched it with interest because I agreed on both side,” and he stressed, “however, record producers must consider the 13 million Soribada users as potential record buyers and persuade them, and not regard them with hostility.” Mr. Yang said, “I will concentrate more on developing games.”

Mr. Yang graduated from University of Virginia Computer Science Department in America, and his brother Jung-Hwan, who co-developed the Soribada, graduated from Columbia University Computer Science Department. The Yang brothers, who wanted to be a rock singer because they were interested in music so much, introduced the Soribada for the first time in May, 2000 after returning to Korea in 1999.

Im-Sook Ha artemes@donga.com