File-sharing firm closes down amid copyright row

A Taiwan-based company behind a popular peer-to-peer file-sharing software has decided to close down over a two-year-old copyright dispute. The firm, Foxy Media Inc., said over the weekend it would stop its services that it said could be used to download files illegally. "Foxy's strong file-sharing function has resulted in severe leakage of confidential information, as some users were using the program improperly. For this reason, a court in Taiwan has ruled it to be controversial software," Foxy Media said, according to a report from Taiwan's Central News Agency. As of Sunday afternoon (Manila time), visitors to the Foxy website (tw.gofoxy.net) were greeted by only a blank page. The CNA report said Foxy Media President Li Hsien-ming was charged in April 2009 for allegedly violating the Copyright Act. Prosecutors claimed the Foxy file exchange website and the file-sharing program infringed upon the music copyrights of What's Music International Inc. and Universal Music Group and the film copyrights of Disney, Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox, it added. — TJD, GMA News