South Korean P2P service Soribada was forced to close its free P2P service. It re-opened as an authorized subscription service in July with signed contracts with 350 music rights holders.

At its peak Soribada had 22 million free users. As a pay service it has already signed up 500,000 members who pay 3,000 South Korean Won or $3.14 US Dollars per month, generating over $1.5 million US dollars per month.

So you think the music industry would be happy with the new revenue source, right? ... No. Thirteen companies now want to renege on their deals due to Soribada's success. They seek to fight the fixed rate unlimited download price.

The companies also demand the cessation of unauthorized transfers by anonymous users. That point does sound reasonable. It should be a simple matter for Soribada to authorize users when they log in, since it's a centralized network like the original Napster.

Regardless of the legal outcome, what is clear is that consumers not just say they will pay for a legal and open P2P service, but demonstrably behave that way. If the major labels accept the channel, they could be earning billions of dollars that they don't bring in now with only minor cannibalization of other channels.