Prosecutors indicted subsidiaries of two leading South Korean Web portals Tuesday on charges of allowing online music piracy activities, an official said.
Two subsidiaries of NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp. were charged with allowing users to post music files on their blogs and personal sites and let other users copy and post the files on their sites, according to prosecution official Lee Kwang-ho.
Prosecutors believe NHN Services and Daum Service, the respective subsidiaries, have the technology to block the piracy activities and are seeking a 30 million won ($22,160) fine for each of the firms, Lee said.
The two companies could not be reached for comment after business hours Tuesday.
Prosecutors have also indicted four officials from the subsidiaries and more than 40 Internet users in connection with the case, Lee said.
Prosecutors have charged individual Internet users with similar copyright disputes in the past, but it was the first time for the Internet firms to be indicted.
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