By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Internet users who share music files for commercial purposes will be subject to criminal charges.

However, Web surfers who download music files for personal purposes and use in a limited area will not be accused.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday said that it has set the guidelines for accusing those who violate copyright laws via the Internet.

Under the guidelines, Internet users who are sued for illegally circulating and swapping music files for commercial purposes will be subject to criminal charges.

Also, Web surfers who intentionally encourage others to illegally download music files will also be punished.

According to the prosecution, users who are sued for illegally downloading music files to use for making compact discs (CD) to sell will face more than a summary indictment by prosecutors.

However, individuals who download for personal entertainment music files that are permitted for personal purposes under the copyright law, will not be charged.

The measures came after NoFree Corp., a copyright protection enterprise, filed a suit against 13,000 Internet users last year for illegally swapping and distributing music files on Web logs, or ``blogs’’ with the prosecution.

Under the guidelines, about 13,000 Internet users will be free from criminal prosecution.

Also, Internet portals such as Naver and Daum sued by the copyright protection enterprise will be subject to suspension of indictment if they make users shut down music files.

``Prosecutors have decided to impose the guidelines to save the judiciary costs of investigating about 10,000 Internet users and to prevent police and prosecutors from breaching human rights by probing Internet users beyond their authority,’’ a prosecutor said.

In particular, the measures are designed to prevent teenagers, the biggest users of music files, from having criminal records.

Prosecutors will monitor Internet portal sites’ follow-up measures for getting rid of illegal music files from the blogs on their sites by the end of this month. If the portal companies do not comply, they will be indicted.

The suit was originally launched last year by the copyright protection firm representing some 60 domestic music companies, accusing the portal companies of failing to counter the distribution of illegal music files by its users.

The corporation claimed that the act of illegally using music files online continued even after the copyright law was revised in January.

It repeatedly requested Internet users and the portal sites to eliminate illegal music files but its requests were ignored.

Under the copyright law, it is illegal to use music on blogs or on online cafes without the prior consent of the copyright holder.

In addition, distributing a music file violates the law even if the sender has legally purchased the file online.

At the behest of various producers and music companies, NoFree Corp. is monitoring illegal file-sharing on the Internet and will attempt to shut down offending sites.

After a prolonged debate, a local court ordered Soribada, the country’s pioneering music swapping site, to shut down the first version of its file-sharing software and computer servers last year.

It marked the nation’s first legal action against a P2P (peer-to-peer) program that allows users to access computer files directly from each other’s hard disk drives.

However, piracy of copyrighted material is still widespread nationwide as high-speed Internet programs make it possible to quickly download a full-length movie or music files.

chungay@koreatimes.co.kr