Twenty popular singers including Um Jung-hwa, Kang Ta, Dongbang-shinki, Seol Woon-do and 30 other people from the recording industry held a demonstration in front of LG Twin Towers in Yeouido on Thursday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., urging LG Telecom to discontinue selling the MP3 phones. The demonstrators insisted that LG Telecom’s sale of MP3 phones would blight the recording industry, which is already teetering on the brink of collapse.

The recording industry argues that if cell phones come equipped with an MP3 function with no limitations the music industry would wither because more than 30 million people use cell phones.

The Korean Association of Phonogram Producers and pop singers stage a demonstration in front of LG Twin Towers in Yeouido on Thursday against LG Telecom’s sale of MP3 cell phones without an agreement with them.

Differing views on the available service period of MP3 music files and MP3 cell phones is the main conflict between the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers (KAPP) and LG Telecom. The KAPP has stuck to the stance that free music MP3 files downloaded from personal computers should only be available for 72 hours with a conspicuously low sound quality. Meanwhile, LG Telecom has opposed any technical limitations, saying that a limitation on a service period would violate the right of consumers to freely use music files or some Internet users might easily develop a program to lift the limitation service period.

LG Telecom began to distribute an MP3 downloading program called Cyncmanager through the Internet site Ez-i (www.ez-i.co.kr). An official at LG Telecom said that the company doesn’t intend to encourage the distribution of illegal MP3 files. “It is necessary for the recording industry to acknowledge the reality and to try to induce free music file users to pay for the files within the boundary of the market. The firm will continue to negotiate with the recording industry,” said the official.

In regards to the dispute, there have been various responses from consumers. Around 100 teenage girls who watched the event also gave different responses to the issue.

A middle school girl Kim Hee-yeon said that she sympathizes fully with the singers’ arguments, while another middle school girl said that she wants to listen to MP3 music files on a cell phone the same way she does on a computer, although she likes the singers.

Thirty LG employees and police were on the demonstration site just in case of a possible incident, but there was no serious physical conflict.

(Tak Sang-hun, if@chosun.com )