RIAA claims victory over AllofMP3.com
p2pnet news | RIAA News:- Multi-billion-dollar Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US) are crowing loudly and proudly about the apparent destruction of AllofMP3.com, a small Russian music download site which had the temerity to go online as competition to the Big 4 labels.
When you go to http://www.allofmp3.ru (formerly allofmp3.com) you’re immediately bounced to http://www.allofmp3.ru/press.shtml quoting a Bloomberg News story which kicks off >>>
Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other record companies dismissed their copyright lawsuit against Russia-based Internet music store AllofMP3.com, which was accused of distributing millions of pirated song files.
Members of the Recording Industry Association of America, a trade group, didn’t say why they were voluntarily dropping the case in papers filed May 20 in federal court in Manhattan.
The Big 4 and their US extortion outfit, the RIAA, are claiming credit.
However, the reality is: it took a massive collaboration on the part of the corporate movie and music cartels, with unstinting assistance from the George W. Bush administration, to bring the site to its knees.
‘How does it feel to be a principal target of the American anti-p2p effort?’
In a Q&A, p2pnet suggested the site had been, “singled out for special attention by the US administration,” quoting US Trade representative Susan Schwab as stating, “I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site like that [AllofMP3.com] up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone’s intellectual property rights.”
Reuters had Schwab calling for AllofMP3.com to be closed “as the United States and Russia are trying once again to reach a deal on Moscow’s 13-year-old bid to join the WTO”.
Those talks failed, it said, “primarily because of agricultural issues and U.S. concerns that Russia was not doing enough to stop piracy and counterfeiting of American goods”.
The Q&A continued >>>
p2pnet:- How does it feel to be a principal target of the American anti-p2p effort?
AllofMP3.com:- It is disappointing that United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab completely and deliberately mischaracterized AllofMP3.com. 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.
p2pnet:- Do you believe the existence of your site stands in the way of US/Russia trade negotiations?
AllofMP3.com:- We believe we are a not barrier to the conclusion of WTO negotiations and that Representative Schwab has deliberately mischaracterized our company. As a Russian-based company, we operate legally under Russian law. It appears the US government is a willing partner in the campaign being waged by the big record companies that wish to shut down our company. And, unfortunately for us, it appears that the US government also sees AllofMP3 as a wedge issue to gain concessions from the Russian government in exchange for its support for WTO ascension.
p2pnet:- What effect might this have on you as a company?
AllofMP3.com:- At the moment it is not possible to define exact terms and conditions of Russia’s accession to WTO. Until the actual accession, which is not soon anyway, WTO rules do not apply to Russian companies. That is also true for any international intellectual property treaties developed under the WTO framework. It is possible that after Russia joins WTO some changes will be made to the national legislation and also that Russia will ratify some new international treaties. But for now it is too early to talk about effect that Russia’s accession to WTO will have on AllOFMP3.com business.
“The complaint, filed in December 2006, called the site ‘a notorious black market’ that made $30 million a year by directing Internet users to music files available for download, without giving any money to the record labels,” says Bloomberg News on the AllofMP3.com site.
It goes on >>>
The other record labels joining the suit with Sony were Warner Music Group Corp., Vivendi SA and EMI Group Plc.
The Web site said in August it would reopen after it had been shut by Russia a month earlier to ease entry into the World Trade Organization. The Bush administration, which called AllofMP3.com a ‘poster child for Internet music piracy,” said the Web site threatened Russia’s entry into the trade group.
A Moscow court in August cleared former AllofMP3.com owner Denis Kvasov of copyright violations, citing insufficient evidence.
AllofMP3.com sold its music for mere pennies based on download size rather than the $1 and more charged by iTunes for individual files.
It said it’s business was legal by virtue of the fact it was licenced through its parent company and the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society and the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively.
Bloomberg News has John Crossman, representing the site’s owner, MediaServices LLC, declaring, “‘They never correctly commenced the proceeding in the first place.”
The case is Arista v. Mediaservices, 06-cv-15319, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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UPDATE:- Kommersant Moscow >
“Once one of most popular music sites, AllOfMP3.com, was considered pirate in the United States and in some other countries. The creators were selling music under the group rights contracts with companies. This practice is regarded complying with Russian laws but they think different in the west.
“Winding up the site was called one of the key provisions for Russia’s admission to the WTO.”
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May 26th, 2008 at 8:51 am
According to the articles linked there .. AllofMP3 has been declared legal and
non-infringing by their courts.
Court confirms legality
http://blogs.allofmp3.ru/music_news/2007/11/05/court-confirms-legality-of-allofmp3com/
Court rules allofmp3 operated within the law ..
http://blogs.allofmp3.ru/music_news/2007/08/27/court-rules-that-allofmp3com-operated-within-the-law/
So they are gone, yet are winning every one of their court cases, and have
been declared fully legal by their court system.
Gone for now, but back with a vengeance ?
May 26th, 2008 at 8:52 am
f’n post disappeared again.
not gonna fuckin bother anymore .. bye
May 26th, 2008 at 9:17 am
^^ Spam comments typically have two or more URLs and Akismet automatically marks them for moderation — I just hadn’t approved yours at that point.
Sorry for that.
I tried it with three URLs and the number of incoming junk posts appearing jumped dramatically.
The alternative is to allow a shit-load of spam comments crawling with links to Chinese and US kiddie-and other-porn sites, guaranteed downloads, and so on.
I’ve been there and I don’t want to go there again.
Cheers!
May 26th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I don’t understand why you’re “supporting” allofmp3; after all, they were selling something they didn’t own, weren’t they? Did any of the revenue, small as it was, filter through to the artists?
On posting troubles: I feel for Mr “Reader’s Write”, it’s tough when you’ve collected some references, to have it bounced (apparently!). I’m curious to see if logging in bypasses the filters. I’m going to post three links; if this makes it to the board, assume that it does. And Jon, if you have to moderate this… delete this part!!!
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/
http://www.neutrality.ca/
http://www.savetheinternet.com/
May 26th, 2008 at 10:23 am
AllofMP3’s owners claim they were legal. And for all I know, they were. But whether that is/was the case or not, I don’t like the idea of huge corporations and the US administration ganging up on a site which probably would have been only too happy to discuss the possibilities in a reasonable manner, and without threats.
However, the labels aren’t at all interested in solutions or compromise. They want want to control how, and by whom, music is distributed online. Period. Full stop.
And as Kommersant suggests, “Winding up the site was called one of the key provisions for Russia’s admission to the WTO.”
On the links, I had to moderate Andy’s post.
I try to check the comments often precisely to keep an eye open for those with two or more links and I don’t think I’ll have missed very many. However, I’m not online twenty four hours a day, and when I am around, I’m doing stories so inevitably, there’ll be delays.
Cheers!
Jon
May 26th, 2008 at 10:28 am
” I don’t understand why you’re “supporting” allofmp3; after all, they were selling something they didn’t own, weren’t they? ”
Russia has it’s own version of the same collective agencies we do, that pay the artists.
AllofMp3 paid the russian collective societies, the sam as we pay the american collective
societies, which then pay the artists. They were legally licensed in russia to do the
same things that Itunes does in the us. Itunes sells what they do not ‘own’ .. they are
licensed and pay US authorized collectice societies. AllofMP3 did EXACLTY the same
thing … the difference is .. they dared to use a pricing model that the labels do not
comprehend, and sold tracks for a reasonable price, AND they were making a buttload
of cash.
They were proof that using a sensible pricing model, people will pay for it instead
of using the ‘free’ route. The RIAA cannot allow proof such as that to survive.
” Did any of the revenue, small as it was, filter through to the artists? ”
I’m sure the russian collective paid at least as much to the artist that their
american counterparts pay to the artist … take that for what it’s worth, when you
consider how many artists collective agencies in the US can’t ‘find’ to pay
What make you think the US entities responsible for paying the artists are any more
or less honest that their Russian couterparts ?
We can never know for sure because the american versions hide their accounting
and payment practices from any responsible party.
Do you really believe that the american versions of collective societies are honest ?
May 26th, 2008 at 10:30 am
” Did any of the revenue, small as it was, filter through to the artists? ”
Small ?
AllofMp3 did incredibly well.
It proved that people will pay when it is drm and bullshit free.
May 26th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I doubt the russians had 40k+ artist that they “could not find”!
They knew for example where to find the songs in a wide variety of encodings to choose from. Even lossless! So they probably also knew where to find the artists had they only made deals with teh russian collecting agency instead the western ones since the western counterparts of those licensefee collecting societies aktively REFUSED to take the money from the russians so if artist did not get any money isn’t the fault of the russians in that case!
P.S. how many Artist had SuX found on their own since Fred updated us on the topic of stealing money from the artists by label/copyrightowners sockpuppets like SuX?
May 26th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
” counterparts of those licensefee collecting societies aktively REFUSED to take the money from the russians so if artist did not get any money isn’t the fault of the russians in that case! ”
Precisely, and why ??
The russian model did not use the dollar per track model that
the US industry likes. You know .. the one that still treats a download
like a physical item .. 1 dollar per track with DRM.
The russian model was SMART.
Cheap, by bytes downloaded and no DRM.
EVERYTHING that the customer wants.
It was the ideal industry model.
The american assholes wanted more though, pure greed.
They want to know how to make downloading work, well, they DO know,
and the concept is proven.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:33 am
They stated that they paid artists royalty payments who claimed and could prove copyright ownership, wherever they were. I don’t know if they removed content through complaint. The payments would have been small per track as the cost was small. Overall it would’ve been enormous, but I wouldn’t know if there were disputes over royalty amounts.
This was certainly no victory. It was grand bribery from an unscrupulous criminal organization, RIAA.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:40 am
People paid because they had no choice if their music was unavailable elsewhere. Plus it was safe and guaranteed, with no nasty surprises.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Awesome news, best i’ve heard all day
May 27th, 2008 at 8:49 am
” People paid because they had no choice if their music was unavailable elsewhere. ”
Now that’s funny.
Everything allofMp3 had could and can be found for free
on p2p , you know that .. everyone knows that.
Yet, people still paid .. they will pay if …
.. the price is right ( it was )
.. no DRM ( not there )
Allofmp3 competed with free and made money.
Proof of concept.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Stop talking about Allofmp3 in the past tense!!
Allofmp3 was rebranded to MP3Sparks.com and is alive and kicking!
It’s even possible to buy download credit again! Check http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3payments.htm
May 27th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
The RIAA is hoping that their deceptive propaganda campaign might convince some AllofMP3 customers that AllOfMP3 is dead and buried. It most certainly is not.
The “closing” of AllOfMP3.com was a subterfuge. The site was simply re-badged as MP3sparks.com. Same product line, same prices.
If that were not enough, there now exist many copycat sites that sprang up like mushrooms after a heavy rain, selling music tracks for 10¢ to 15¢ each.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
BitTorrent is the REAL world trade organization.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:02 am
10 to 15 cents? Sounds like a reasonable price to me. Why not? The RIAA made Jammie Thomas pay them over an eight-digit percentage for their songs; it’s up to sites like these to make up the balance!
May 29th, 2008 at 4:01 am
People pay because they accept to pay. This is part of living in a society.
Nothing prevent us form going into a store and jacking whatever we want.
Any statment to the contrary is propaganda. Still people go to the store and pay for stuff.
But for me as far as the RIAA/MPAA members are concerned I want them DEAD! PEROIOD!
Particularly Vivendi/Universal. And I believe that I am getting what I want as we speak, so none
of us will have to fetch our guns.
Cool!
I am demanding for the compensation of the victims though.