Largest local webhard operator indicted for illegal uploading

2 indicted for profiteering 10 billion won, setting up upload firm

The owner of the webhard operators has been arrested in suspicion of illegally distributing popular soaps, movies and adult films via the Internet.

The operator is the largest in Korea with its annual output of 40 billion won and a total subscribers of 7.5 million.

The prosecution said that a 40-year-old Yang, actual operator of WeDisk and Filenori, and another person were charged with uploading distributed intellectual property without authorization of authors.

The prosecution said that Yang uploaded movies and other moving images on to WeDisk and another webhard site in some 400 IDs of workers at a upload firm, Nurijin, set up for this purpose.

“Yang profiteered a total of 1.1 billion won in fees collected from the downloading of films and soaps by subscribers of the sites since February, 2008,” an investigator said.

Yang also did not pay 15.2 billion won in copyright to 22 legal partners, including broadcasters.