Despite being indicted for copyright infringement, two online file-sharing Web sites announced yesterday that they plan to establish a peer-to-peer (P2P) association by the end of next year.
"Widely applying P2P technology beyond music file sharing is an irreversible trend, and Taiwan should not absent from this wave," James Chen (陳國華), chief executive officer of Kuro.com.tw (飛行網), told a press conference.
"We should find a solution to balance the new technology and its impact to existing industries, rather than destroying it," he said.
Kuro, the nation's largest online file-sharing site with 500,000 members, and Ezpeer.com.tw were indicted by prosecutors for violating the Copyright Law (著作權法) after the International Fed-eration of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) filed charges against them. IFPI filed charges against Kuro in September and against Ezpeer in August of last year.
IFPI, which represents 10 local and international record labels, claimed that such P2P sites allow subscribers to download and share music files without obtaining authorization from the copyright holders.
Both Kuro and Ezpeer charge subscribers a monthly fee. Kuro charges NT$99 while Ezpeer is NT$1 more.
The companies say Taiwan's courts should follow the lead of their counterparts in other countries, noting that US-based Grokster Ltd was found not liable for copyright infringement by the district court in Los Angeles this April.
Unlike Kuro and Ezpeer, however, Grokster does not use a centralized file sharing system. Information is transferred directly between users without the participation of any computers controlled or owned by the company.
Kuro and Ezpeer also offer a title directory for their members, a service which is also considered key to their indictments.
Kuro and Ezpeer had offered to pay compensation to the record labels, but the offer was rejected.
Reaching a profit-distribution formula acceptable to both parties is still the best solution to the case, Chen said yesterday.
"I'm 100 percent sure that we will win the case, because we only provide a platform for users to swap their files -- we don't illegally distribute them," Chen said.
IFPI Taiwan secretary-general Robin Lee (李瑞斌) is also confident of winning the copyright war.
"We don't oppose P2P, but we do oppose manipulators who use the technology to infringe upon our rights," Lee said. "We are discussing granting online music distribution rights with a total of seven companies who are willing to gain authorization before allowing users to share their files."
Prospective online-file operators include iBIZ Entertainment Technology Corp (艾比茲娛樂科技), Hinet and Acer Inc, Lee said.
iBIZ is an arm of Era Communications Co (年代網際 事業), which said last month that it would launch its online music downloading service by the end of the year.
The lawsuits appear to have had limited impact on Kuro and Ezpeer. Kuro lost 1,800 subscribers, Chen said, while Ezpeer president Weber Wu (
The demise of the coal industry left the US’ Appalachian region in tatters, with lost jobs, spoiled water and countless kilometers of abandoned underground mines. Now entrepreneurs are eyeing the rural region with ambitious visions to rebuild its economy by converting old mines into solar power systems and data centers that could help fuel the increasing power demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. One such project is underway by a non-profit team calling itself Energy DELTA (Discovery, Education, Learning and Technology Accelerator) Lab, which is looking to develop energy sources on about 26,305 hectares of old coal land in
Netflix on Friday faced fierce criticism over its blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. The streaming giant is already viewed as a pariah in some Hollywood circles, largely due to its reluctance to release content in theaters and its disruption of traditional industry practices. As Netflix emerged as the likely winning bidder for Warner Bros — the studio behind Casablanca, the Harry Potter movies and Friends — Hollywood’s elite launched an aggressive campaign against the acquisition. Titanic director James Cameron called the buyout a “disaster,” while a group of prominent producers are lobbying US Congress to oppose the deal,
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
Two Chinese chipmakers are attracting strong retail investor demand, buoyed by industry peer Moore Threads Technology Co’s (摩爾線程) stellar debut. The retail portion of MetaX Integrated Circuits (Shanghai) Co’s (上海沐曦) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) was 2,986 times oversubscribed on Friday, according to a filing. Meanwhile, Beijing Onmicro Electronics Co (北京昂瑞微), which makes radio frequency chips, was 2,899 times oversubscribed on Friday, its filing showed. The bids coincided with Moore Threads’ trading debut, which surged 425 percent on Friday after raising 8 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion) on bets that the company could emerge as a viable local competitor to Nvidia
RSS