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Private company

Soribada

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Korean peer-to-peer file-sharing service

Soribada (Korean: 소리바다) was the first Korean peer-to-peer file-sharing service, launched in 2000 by Sean Yang. The name 'Soribada' means "Ocean of Sound" or "Receiving (downloading) Sound". It was closed in 2002 by court order but continued to be distributed with a stipulation that its users were responsible for any of the files downloaded.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

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Soribada (Korean: 소리바다) was the first Korean peer-to-peer file-sharing service, launched in 2000 by Sean Yang. The name 'Soribada' means "Ocean of Sound" or "Receiving (downloading) Sound". It was closed in 2002 by court order but continued to be distributed with a stipulation that its users were responsible for any of the files downloaded.2

Products and brands

Paid service

From December 2004 to June 2005, Soribada sold nearly 5 million songs through its servers. Searches returned both tracks for sale and free downloads, with the first ones appearing higher on search results.

Service stopped: September 2005

Upon being sued again, this time by 30 record labels (led by YBM Seoul Records (now Kakao Entertainment) and JYP Entertainment) and some musicians, Soribada stopped its service in 2005. Yang Jung-hwan and his brother Il-hwan, the creators of Soribada, faced criminal charges in January 2005. A complete shutdown of Soribada has been ordered by the Seoul High Court in October 2007 after it overturned a lower court decision in favor of the former. The High Court's basis for the reversal was the substantial evidences and findings submitted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST)) which suggested that the site has encouraged users to commit copyright violations.

From Wikipedia’s article on Soribada, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Sources

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