I never meant to suggest that AllOfMP3 is doing anything wrong.
I also did not mean to suggest that radio stations do anything wrong by accepting and working with the “blind licenses” scam, of which they are victims. I realize that as of now the radio stations live with the sam or get out of broadcasting music. The same applies to television stations. concer halls, restaurants and wherever music is publicly performed.The issuing of blind performance licenses is the fault of the collectives who issue them and others (for the USA) who ignore the problemn and see nothing wrong. I am talking about the best legislature money can buy, the Justice Department and the Copyright Office officers.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

As I said in my post above, the problem isn’t AllOfMP3.com. There are laws in Russia and they comply with those laws. If money isn’t getting to the artist, it’s the fault of ROMS and FAIR … and *they* should be investigated and perhaps prosecuted, not AllOfMP3. In short, the problem isn’t a site operator who’s paying what’s asked to a licensing agency (as the law requires), it’s the licensing agency itself.

If an auto dealer sells a car and sends the required portion to his district office to compensate the automaker – and if the automaker never sees a dime – should the automaker go after the dealer or the district office? Same principle, different continent.

This trade brouhaha may end up being a blessing in disguise that would lead to a compromise. One possible compromise is a Russian guarantee that ROMS/FAIR will make an appropriate compensation to artists … in exchange for the music industry relinquishing the “control” over which artists can have their works sold and which can’t. This would be the best of all possible solutions – access to music without the music industry’s constraint of saying who plays and who doesn’t. It might cost a little bit more but would probably still cost less than iTunes.

If the UK or any government tells the people they are breaking the law by bying from allofmp3, then the expectation is that people accept it by faith, as the gospel truth.

To begin with, what law?
And how is a person to know if the recording purchased from allofmp3 is a pirated one or a legitimate one because allofmp3 was licensed to sell?

Then is it ilegal to buy pirate recordings? Where I live selling pirated (fake) cds is illegal not the buying or possesing them. Otherwise buying fake watches sold in plain sight, in front of the courthouse, would be ilegal and everybody here would be a criminal.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

Ok, lets assume this is true, that AllOfMP3.com does hane licenses from the collectives. Ah, but colllectives all over the world have the habit of issuing “blind licenses” whereby the licensee has no idea what songs he pays for, which leads to the licensees using any song, licensed or illegally (which could be Russian), knowing that the collectives will not sue and that the songwriters of the illeglly used songs will never see a cent.

If AllOfMP3 is licensed by Russian collectives and the collectives of other countries have no jurisdiction within Russia, then AllOfMP3 cannot be sued (as a practical matter) in Russia for the use of say, American songs.

One of the things that is not made clear by AllOfMP3 is what must non Russians, say an American songwriter or other copyright holders do if they want to collect royalties for the sales made by AllOfMP3? Must these register the songs and/or the recordings with the Russian collectives? Is that meaningful if the Russian collectives also issue “blind licenses” and then divide the royalty money among the creators blindly (no one know how they do it) too, as is done by most if not all collectives outside Russia?

Is a pandora box being openned here?

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

but i guess it’s ok for the UK to collude with the US on illegal flights of terror suspects to illegal “detention camps” (as stated on BBC news teletext).

Incidentally, President Putin made two statements on the same day. First, he made a strong statement regarding stepped-up enforcement of intellectual property rights. But shortly afterward, he made a second statement, indicating that he was considering “nationalizing” all foreign-owned banks. I think the message is clear that, right or wrong, Putin wants to deal with any intellectual property issue in his country as a RUSSIAN problem … and has a great disdain for meddling foreigners who attempt to dictate “policy” within Russian borders. Or to put it simply, Putin may have been delivering a message to those who intend to withhold membership in the WTO – “Go ahead, make my day.”

I know that not one cent received in RIAA “settlement” money goes to the artists.

I’ll take a punt and do business with the Russians. At least they COULD be telling the truth.

Even in the US where the RIAA (on behalf of its members) has sued, or threatened to sue, thousands of users, in order to intimidate private citizens to coughing up “protection money”
NOT ONE CENT THEY RECEIVE GOES TO THE ARTISTS THEY SAY THEY ARE PROTECTING, but into the kitty to file more lawsuits.