p2pnet - rss feed: AllofMP3.com says No! to RIAA
p2pnet.net News:- AllofMP3 is continuing to stand firm against mounting international pressure being brought to bear by the entertainment cartels, supported by the US administration and with the Big 4 Organized Music labels in the lead.
“I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site [AllofMP3.com] like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone’s intellectual property rights,” said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab recently.
The cartel is now suing AllofMP3.com, with Arista Records, Warner Bros, Capitol and UMG recordings on the court document. They allege AllofMP3.com sells copyrighted songs without permission.
“This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3.com does not operate in New York,” the company has told Ars Technica, going on, “Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3.com operates legally in Russia. In the mean time, AllofMP3.com plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws.”
But this doesn’t say if AllofMP3 and parent company Mediaservices plan to, “commit their resources to a full-scale US court battle,” says the story, going on:
“Should AllofMP3 show up in court, the case is unlikely to turn on the issue of the service’s legality in Russia. Though the AllofMP3 statement made it sound like that was the key issue, it was not raised by the RIAA court filing. The trade group appears to have abandoned its efforts to use the Russian legal system to shut down AllofMP3, instead opting for pressure in the form of trade agreements and federal lawsuits back in the US, where it has more leverage.”
‘RIAA’ is short for Recording Industry Association of America, a so-called trade organization run by EMI (Britain), Vivendi Universal (France) and Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), with Warner Music as the only American component. And Warner headed by a Canadian.
“The situation is analagous to that of offshore or British-based gambling sites that actually make most of their money from US punters,” says Ars Technica, adding:
“Though the services are legal in their own localities, the operators have routinely faced arrest if they set foot in the US, and the government has tried to restrict their revenues from leaving the US.”
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See:
hard time - AllofMP3.com credit cards blocked, October 20, 2006
now suing - Big 4 labels sue AllofMP3.com, December 21, 2006
Ars Technica - AllofMP3: RIAA lawsuit is “unjustified”, December 28, 2006
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December 29th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
I’m In Ur WT0
Eating all Ur Labelz
<grin>
December 29th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
heh
Cheers, Julian. All the best for the next 12 ….
December 29th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Don’t you love this? The pest of the cartels is getting no where. I can just picture the froth coming from the mouth as they chant the mantra, “They’re stealing our stuff”.
They’ve had no luck with the WTO gambit. They’ve had no luck with Russian law. They’ve had no luck with a lot of different maneuvers.
Fiddling with putting pressure on them by hijacking payment by credit card has resulted in AllofMP3 changing how they accept money and further allowing tasters of material for (oh how could they) FOR FREE!
Just like The Pirate Bay, folks just aren’t listening are they? Instead more and more they are saying, “Screw you” and going on about their business.
Others have shown that the outdated and damaged business models of the cartels that have worked for so long, isn’t working any more. Playing shinanagins with laws and buying those laws appear to be a waste of money. Money I might add could have went to pay artists their due. Then it was never about the artists was it? It was about how to screw everyone that does business with them.
Now the customer is saying the same thing and it isn’t setting so well with the original thieves. Can’t say it isn’t deserving.