By Tang Zhao

A Shanghai-based website providing peer-to-peer (P2P) software has denied that it has issued an alternate piece of software on a separate website allowing users to download pirated content, following the clean-up of its main software.

VeryCD.com offers a popular Chinese-version of P2P program eMule, called easyMule, which allows people to share files on their computer with other users of the software.

On June 18, the company issued an updated version of the software that cut access to global servers, limiting searches to links on VeryCD's servers only. That day, Huang Yimeng, co-founder of VeryCD, told Sina. com that the move was made as part of the website's plan to secure a license from the government to redistribute audio and video content.

A notice on VeryCD's online forum posted on June 16 said "In order to be compliant with national regulations on the management of video and audio programs, we have to adjust the search functions of easyMule."

However, emulefans.com, a website for Chinese users of eMule, posted an article on Tuesday claiming that VeryCD. com is the owner of the dianlv. com domain name, a website that offers the unlocked VeryCD version of eMule.

"I have no idea about this issue," Dai Yunjie, co-founder and chief technology officer of VeryCD.com, told the Global Times Thursday.

According to cached pages of domain name registrar eName.cn from July 1, "The domain name dianlv.com was bought by VeryCD in 2009. It has been used as the official domain name for easyMule's website." However, the information has since been removed from eName.cn.

In December 2009, several Chinese websites offering free BitTorrent P2P downloading services were closed down by the authorities for not having relevant licenses.