AllofMP3, now a matter for the courts
Denis Kvasov, the former owner of Russian music site AllofMP3.com, has been charged with violating intellectual property laws in a Russian court, and faces up to three years in prison and a hefty fine for operating the popular music download site.
The Russian government shut down AllofMP3 recently after receiving political pressure from the World Trade Organization over the site’s questionable copyright practices.
AllofMP3 sold individual music downloads for as little as 10 cents a song (90 cents less than companies like iTunes), to customers throughout the world, with no digital rights management. The company maintains it was acting under Russian copyright law, which allowed Russian collection societies like the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS), to license music to companies without securing permission from the music’s copyright holder.
AllofMP3 said it was paying 15-percent of its revenue to ROMS, but US and UK music companies refused to collect payment from ROMS, because collection would have ultimately led to a legal acceptance of the download site.
Russian law has since changed, again under political pressure, and Kvasov is being charged under a law that didn’t exist when he started the company. You have got to love Russia for that one.
Of course, this probably won’t end the intellectual property battles between the WTO and Russia. AllofMP3’s sister site, alltunes, is still operational (as is the strangely similar mp3sparks.com) and it recently won a major court battle with Visa where a Moscow court found that Visa acted illegally when it cut off transactions made to the store, as it also did to AllofMP3.
Not to mention, AllofMP3 was just one of the dozens of Russian music sites offering downloads of music from all over the world, for a fraction of what it would cost from American music download companies.
Really, I think this question needs to be asked.
Why does it cost $0.99 for a single song download?
I would like to see an investigation into that on American soil. The last time the U.S. government investigated the music industry on its pricing, it didn't work out so well for them. I'm guessing it will turn out the same again if somebody starts asking the right questions.
The Russian government shut down AllofMP3 recently after receiving political pressure from the World Trade Organization over the site’s questionable copyright practices.
AllofMP3 sold individual music downloads for as little as 10 cents a song (90 cents less than companies like iTunes), to customers throughout the world, with no digital rights management. The company maintains it was acting under Russian copyright law, which allowed Russian collection societies like the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS), to license music to companies without securing permission from the music’s copyright holder.
AllofMP3 said it was paying 15-percent of its revenue to ROMS, but US and UK music companies refused to collect payment from ROMS, because collection would have ultimately led to a legal acceptance of the download site.
Russian law has since changed, again under political pressure, and Kvasov is being charged under a law that didn’t exist when he started the company. You have got to love Russia for that one.
Of course, this probably won’t end the intellectual property battles between the WTO and Russia. AllofMP3’s sister site, alltunes, is still operational (as is the strangely similar mp3sparks.com) and it recently won a major court battle with Visa where a Moscow court found that Visa acted illegally when it cut off transactions made to the store, as it also did to AllofMP3.
Not to mention, AllofMP3 was just one of the dozens of Russian music sites offering downloads of music from all over the world, for a fraction of what it would cost from American music download companies.
Really, I think this question needs to be asked.
Why does it cost $0.99 for a single song download?
I would like to see an investigation into that on American soil. The last time the U.S. government investigated the music industry on its pricing, it didn't work out so well for them. I'm guessing it will turn out the same again if somebody starts asking the right questions.
posted by Eric LaRose at
11:16 AM
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