Hollywood Howard vs AllofMP3’s successors
p2pnet news | Music:- That the United States of America launched an undisguised, full-frontal attack on AllofMP3.com, a tiny Russian music download site, and anyone or anything to do with it, is well known online.
But now, as CNET News puts it in a headline, “U.S. wants end to Allofmp3 spinoffs”.
US trade representative Susan Schwab has been spearheading the assault, but joining her to push the effort even more firmly into the headlines is Hollywood Howard Berman.
To digress slightly, the entertainment industries have been leading contributors to Berman since 1993, helping him out to the tune of close to $1,000,000.
Back to the story, Russia, “does not yet meet ‘international standards’ in its intellectual property laws,” Berman said at a hearing about international piracy, convened by a US House of Representatives intellectual property subcommittee, which he leads.
“In addition to government intervention, payment and credit card processors and Internet service providers need to do more to rid the Internet of international piracy operations, too,” CNET has him declaring, and going on:
“Their refusal to use the technical tools at their disposal to staunch piracy exacerbates the problem.”
What to do? What to do?
Change the laws.
Problem Solved.
“Russia has already taken modest steps to improve its standing as an intellectual property law enforcer, such as refusing to renew the leases on 15 of 16 unlicensed optical disc plants that reside on its military land,” the story quotes Victoria Espinel, assistant US trade representative for intellectual property and innovation, as saying.
It continues:
“But, as negotiations progress over Russia’s joining the WTO, the country still needs to shut down and prosecute owners of ‘illegal Web sites’ operating in Russia, including Allofmp3’s successors, Espinel said.
‘In complete compliance’
AllofMP3.com has always taken the view that its operation was completely legal.
“It is disappointing that United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab completely and deliberately mischaracterized AllofMP3.com,” a company representative told p2pnet recently, going on:
Furthermore, it is irresponsible to use AllofMP3.com as a negotiating instrument in an attempt to extract concessions from Russia in return for US support for accession to the World Trade Organization.
AllofMP3.com is a Russian business that is in complete compliance with Russian law.
It regularly transferred “substantial amounts of royalties” to Russian organizations for collective management of rights such as ROMS and FAIR, “which have granted the site licenses to legally deliver music through the Internet,” said AllofMP3.com when the US first started waving the WTO stick and Russia in a bid to get it to close down the online music service.
But, “In the United States’ view, those supposed royalty collection authorities were ‘rogue’ operations that weren’t authorized by the record industry, Espinel said,” according to CNet, which continues:
“It pressured Russia to enact a new law, set to take effect in January, that says only those online services that pay royalties to ‘authorized’ collection bodies are legit, she added. Assuming they’re enforced, it seems those legal changes could confirm what record companies have believed all along – that the Russian music stores are illegal.”
In other words, change the past to accommodate the future, a truly Orwellian concept.
‘Private sector enforcement efforts’
Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG’s IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) succeeded in persuading VISA and MasterCard to ban payments to Russian music download site allTunes, using alleged copyright infringement as the excuse, p2pnet posted, going on:
However, a Moscow court has ruled the action was illegal.
AllTunes owner Internet-Audit sued Rosbank, VISA’s Russian agent, and affiliate United Card Services (UCS), it tells p2pnet.
Internet-Audit says the City Arbitration Court of Moscow ruled the ‘unilateral refusal to fulfil the acquiring agreement’ Rosbank and UCS had concluded with Alltunes was against the law.
The decision on whether or copyrights have been infringed, ‘can only be taken by [a] court based on a suit filed by exclusive copyright holders, but neither IFPI nor VISA own such rights’, says the court decision.
“World industry giants represented by IFPI resort to administrative resources and unfair competition,” states Internet-Audit.
The situation demonstrates “the limits of private sector enforcement efforts in cases of international infringement,” Visa vice president Mark MacCarthy says in the CNET post, adding:
“When local laws are not clear or are not consistent, governments and aggrieved businesses cannot put private sector intermediaries like Visa in the position of resolving the conflicts and lack of clarity.”
And Berman, “voiced sympathy for Visa’s plight,” telling MacCarthy fulsomely:
“I think this is a case where the company you represent has shown real leadership and has done the right thing. I hope other service providers who do online transactions follow your example.”
What do the people who elected Berman think about his efforts on behalf of the entertainment industry?
Good question.
Also See:
CNET News – U.S. wants end to Allofmp3 spinoffs, October 18, 2007
p2pnet – p2pnet talks to AllofMP3.com, May 28, 2007
ban payments – Russia’s allTunes defeats IFPI, July 13, 2007
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