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Chunghwa stops collecting money for P2P network

After being embroiled in a legal dispute over alleged copyright infringements at the end of last year, the nation's peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing industry saw another setback as a result of growing corporate awareness of the protection of intellectual property rights.

Following a decision by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to completely stop collecting monthly subscription fees for kuro.com.tw (飛行網), the nation's largest peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing provider, Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大) and FarEasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) will also stop collecting money for Kuro at the end of next month.

State-run Chunghwa Telecom's Hinet division removed the service from its Web site in July last year, and the carrier's mobile communication department announced that it would follow suit starting this month after the contract with Kuro expired at the end of last month.

Kuro charges its customers NT$99 per month for unlimited swapping of music files with other members via the platform.

Chunghwa Telecom said the company made the decision because of Kuro's involvement in a legal dispute with copyright holders, as did Taiwan Cellular and Far-EasTone, company officials said.

At the end of last year, prosecutors charged Kuro and another P2P provider, Ezpeer.com.tw, with copy-right infringement after the Taiwan branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) filed charges against them. The court has not yet delivered a verdict.

An official of FarEasTone, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the company has received calls from the IFPI concerning the matter.

Robin Lee (李瑞斌), secretary general of the IFPI in Taiwan, said the federation was merely protecting intellectual property rights.

"We admit that our business will be affected, as about half our subscribers pay their fees via these carriers," Kuro spokesman Eric Yang (楊智謀) said yesterday.

Kuro's subscriber base was slashed by half after Hinet stopped collecting fees, and it took Kuro almost a year to bring its number of subscribers back to the present level of about 500,000, Yang said.

Kuro also sued Hinet to demand compensation of NT$30 million, accusing Hinet of ending the service to promote its own online music business. The court ruled in favor of Hinet and closed the case in July.

Yang said that Kuro is creating more options for subscribers to settle their accounts.

Besides using credit cards, Kuro subscribers can still submit their payments to TransAsia Telecommunications Inc (泛亞電信), Mobitai Communications Co Ltd (東信電訊), Seednet (數位聯合) and E. Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行).

A public relations official at Seednet said the company currently has no plan to stop cooperating with Kuro.

"As an ISP [Internet service provider], we think we should help related business to grow ... we will make our decision after the ruling comes out," she said.
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