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29 November 2006 23:01 by Petteri "dRD" Pyyny
| 39 comments
Russia has bowed under the U.S. pressure and has agreed to investigate the legality of the controversial AllofMP3.com music service.
As Russia signed an agreement with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in order to get an entry to the World Trade Organization, it has agreed to take action against digital piracy. U.S. Trade Representative has issued a press release stating that Russia will "investigate and prosecute companies that illegally distribute copyright works on the Internet". So, this incldues AllfMP3.com and other similar services that operate in Russia.
The problem is, however, that AllofMP3 is a legal service under the current Russian copyright legislation. The company sells music over the Net for extremely cheap price, without DRM hassle and allows customers to freely choose the audio compression method and quality they wish to have their music encoded with. As a summary, the site works exactly like a good legal online distribution channel should work, in order to fight against P2P networks. The problem, U.S. government and the lobby groups behind its demands, has with AllofMP3 and other similar services is that the royalties the companies pay to labels, are minimal or non-existent -- but still in line with the current Russian legislation.
AllofMP3 has been under a heavy international pressure lately, in Denmark an ISP was forced to close access to its site, last year German court ordered all German sites advertising or linking to AllofMP3 to cease their activity and in October this year, Visa stopped accepting payments made to AllofMP3.
It is interesting to see whether these companies will simply move their operations overseas (one would assume there are still ex-Soviet states left that have copyright legislations similar to the current Russian legislation) or would they try to accommodate to the new situation in Russia (where the legislation will inevitably change soon to satisfy U.S. -based labels' demands).
Source: CNet
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Related articles:
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AllofMP3.com responded to RIAA lawsuit (1 January 2007)
Online pirate sentenced to jail time (20 December 2006)
Sony to pay $1.5 million for subjecting consumers to DRM (20 December 2006)
Azureus turns 3.0 and raises $12 million (5 December 2006)
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| duckNrun (Inactive) 30 November 2006 17:57 |
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Can you Allof bashers not read??? Or is it that you just can't comprehend the fact that other countries have a right to make th elaws that THEY want to live by?
INSIDE RUSSIA there is nothing illegal about the site! And as for ripping people off for selling so cheaply... Russian yearly wages AVG about $4000 US which is about 10% of the average US income. Is it so suprising then that there products (in this case music) are about 10% the cost of US download service iTunes?
As an American myself I get ticked off hearing other countries and the UN try to dictate OUR laws and policies... so why do YOU want to do the same to Russia?
The site IS legal in Russia.
Under US copyright law you are allowed to import a copyrighted product that you legally purchased from outside the US
Since you buy the music from within Russia, the music you buy is housed in your personal space on the site within Russia and then you IMPORT it onto your PC or Ipod. The origional in your space is deleted and you are left with ONE copy...the one you legally bought in Russia and legally imported into the US
Get a grip guys. If you feel like paying more money for your music from an American company then go for it!
However, I like to OUTSOURCE my purchases (just like the companies outsource our jobs!) and spend my US dollars in the global economy to get ME the best deal as opposed to some multi-millionaire CEO and Music Label.
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| Auslander (AfterDawn Addict) 30 November 2006 19:07 |
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excellent post, duckNrun.
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| ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 30 November 2006 19:39 |
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duckNrun
*builds a mini shrine and worships you*
0_o
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| duckNrun (Inactive) 30 November 2006 20:13 |
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Don't forget to put up the collection plate at the door of the shrine ;-)
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| Auslander (AfterDawn Addict) 30 November 2006 20:16 |
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better put a catch over it....i'm liable to reach my hand in and pluck some gas money out.
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| duckNrun (Inactive) 30 November 2006 20:28 |
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and while I'm here again..lol
there is STILL a way to circumvent visa and mastercard's policy not to transfer funds to Allof for those who are interested.
here is thread to read:
http://blogs.allofmp3.com/...
And here is the thread to the FAQ's from Allof concerning legality and such. Keep in mind that it's they're interpretation of the law but as someone who has dilligently read the same US copyright law as they are quoting I assure you that they're interpretation seems pretty accurate. But hey google the USC sections they list in the faq and see for yourself..
http://www.allofmp3.com/press/centre.shtml?s=993&d=18191974
Finally, it seems they found one more way to stick it to the RIAA.. they are alpha testing... STREAMING of their content to your PC.... FOR FREE LOL
Of course you need a special player so that you can't steal the stream (lol with those of you are already seeing the ways around that!)
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 30 November 2006 20:53
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| Auslander (AfterDawn Addict) 30 November 2006 20:37 |
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praise be to them! i'm happy to see how strong they are standing.
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| tefarko (Junior Member) 1 December 2006 5:54 |
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greedy corporations have been raping the customers for years... now bend over to P2P...
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| Eisherz (Senior Member) 1 December 2006 7:04 |
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@duckNrun
Do I get you right, that means their stream + audacity = free music?
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| redrum (Inactive) 1 December 2006 7:43 |
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For me it's not a choice between paying $.25 for a song or $15 for a cd. It's the difference between paying $2.50 for an album or not buying at all. As it turns out, I've spent more on music at allofmp3 in the last 2 years than I've spent on music in the last 40 years. My guess is that if the record labels would lower prices the pie would be so much larger that they would end up with MORE money. And one other thing. There aren't other sources of what allofmp3 offers, which is downloads at super high quality. And yes, on the right equipment you can really hear the difference.
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| ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 1 December 2006 8:07 |
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redrum
you could say the same about video games work a game fully dev it finish the coding to "complete" it then release it and OMG it will sale for years not just 3 or so months after launch and be forgotten...
Logic and Corporations rarely walk hand and hand....its much easier for them to horde money and sue people and cry foul and rise prices so they don't have to show what money is going to than it is to slim down be innovative in price to maximize profit....
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| ygor (Newbie) 1 December 2006 11:27 |
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As someone that has been buying music for 45 years, there are a lot of issues that are left on the wayside as to why people buy illegal mp3's
First off with today's music,there are only about ten songs a year worth paying for at all much less at full price. and of those, maybe two have been laid down by a good engineer, so it is listenable. the artists do not make money on recordings, period. they make it on touring. Example, The Stones are set to make over a half Billion on their current tour.
Digital rights? what the hell is that anyway? if I buy a CD or DVD, it is my property to do with as I please. I am old enough to remember the entry of cassette tape and the VCR, and this was settled once with the Fair Use laws.
The citizens of the world, should wake up to the fact that if these mega corporations are allowed to get away with this unlimited copyright stuff. You can kiss the idea of personal property goodbye, and that means everything, phone cars, computers, and as we are beginning to see here in the U.S. your home.
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| ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 1 December 2006 11:36 |
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ygor
Not quite you cant sell copies of it.
you an however transfer backup archive and play ti how you want to play it as any media should be...
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| Eisherz (Senior Member) 1 December 2006 12:14 |
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But I should atleast be allowed to make a copy for myself as a backup or rip the songs into mp3 to play them on my mp3-player and I should be allowed to do that the fastest, most quality-keeping way possible. I am not if that means I have to deal with the copy protection, meaning the only way I could make a backup of a cd I own is by using a software like audacity and make an analoge copy of a digital medium on a digital medium with a massive loss of quality and a waste of time.
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| ygor (Newbie) 1 December 2006 12:23 |
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Zip,
according to the recent readings of the DMCL you can make no copies of the discs at all. You can not rip it to your computer, as that breaks the copy protection, and doing anything that breaks copy protection is a violation of the copyright law.
I no longer buy CD's I search out Vinyl LP's, as of late more artists are releasing new stuff on vinyl.
As an old fart, I remember when a copyright was only 17 years, and I remember in 1973 if you bought the then new VCS or BEta machine, the salesman warned you that you might get a visit from the FBI. In 1970 there was a nationwide arrest of people who had private movie collections of 16 and 35mm films.
The actions of the Movie and music industry is not new, they fought the VCR, the dual cassete recorder, and anything that could be used to make copies. But their actions now are Facist to say the least.
I am sorry to say this, but I support any action to break the power of the media giants. When one corporation controls music, film, newspapers, books, TV, cable, and the news, and are able to swing elections, personal opinion, religion, and everything you see and hear. Now the fight is on to control the internet.
When they have that we are indeed screwed.
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| ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 1 December 2006 12:37 |
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ygor
Is it not the same with Vinyl?
anyway I ignore their BS and use the basic fair use state of mind I can backup/archive for my personal use.
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| ygor (Newbie) 1 December 2006 12:44 |
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The Fair Use Law of 1974 allows you to make copies of copyrighted material for personal use, for instance I could tape an LP and give it to my son. Not sell, give.
It is the wording of the DMCL that is the demon, under that wording it is illegal to watch a DVD, because the DVD player has to crack the security of the DVD to play it in analog.
Strange!
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| ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 1 December 2006 12:49 |
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ygor
*L*
pretty muh thus why I gave up on the DMCA.
and use the basic fair use mindset any media can be backed up for personal use,wellll....any media you own ^_~ .
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| advent (Inactive) 1 December 2006 14:26 |
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The RIAA and the MPAA are a bunch of crooks and rule america like some
modern day mafia.
They buy laws and suppress competition by putting money into the
right pockets.
I agree artists should be payed for their talent and effort but there are better ways of doing it than via the riaa/mpaa, who keep a large
percentage for themselves.
Money talks, and in america money will buy you anything regardless of the right and wrongs.
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| noknot (Newbie) 1 December 2006 17:28 |
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I agree the MPAA and RIAA are a bunch of crooks. To charge someone $15 for a piece of plastic you can get for free after rebate (CD's) is crazy. I haven't bought a cd since napster. I just borrow from the biggest legal sahring service available, the PUBLIC LIBRARY. There's no anti copying protection there. All the libraries should be shut down due to their music and dvd sharing policies, but they won't. My local library has evrything i need and i can even copy the labels. MPAA and RIAA get a life, if we want it, we'll get it!!!
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| MTLBeast (Newbie) 2 December 2006 10:09 |
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ygor is my hero. And he's right.
As a studio musician, I don't personally care who shares files or doesn't, although the people I work for do. And I can vouch for the fact that the ARTIST is probably the only person(s) who DOESN'T make money off the album sales. It's done with touring and merchandising (assuming you didn't sign THOSE rights away too) The label takes EVERYTHING else. Or as close to everything as you they can get, since slavery is technically illegal. As my lawyer friend once said (who works in the States) about a record contract he was shown:
"This record contract is worse than slavery... Because you have to at least FEED a slave."
He was Black, to get some perspective on that statement.
So, download the music, share it with friends, visit my website, and come to my shows. Buy my T-shirts and my posters. I don't care if you don't have the CD, I didn't make money off it anyways. Either way, I win. And I don't worry about other people "stealing my intellectual property" since A) No self-respecting musician rips another's song and B) Only the board-room weasels would try, but their lawyers tell them not to, because I am still protected under law and would sue them blind. (Provided I dated the material) Indie, all the way.
Just FYI, it was proven by the RIAA probe (in Canada, where I am) that downloading music has actually expanded the market base and created revenue for the major labels. Like ygor says, this fight has already been fought, many years ago, and they lost.
So now they're fighting this. And they'll lose again. Or at best will claim a Pyrrhic Victory. God(s) Bless the Internet, the only truly FREE place on Earth.
(And I remember the BETA-Max too, ygor...)
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| rvlikens (Newbie) 4 December 2006 14:08 |
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I would like for someone (one of you keyboard lawyers) to stop beating around the bush and lay it out on the line. Why would any of you post it's illegal to download from allofmp3? A customer is paying for music being sold by an overseas seller. You are "importing" goods no different then if it was coming with a "Made in China" tag on it. So, you pay a cheaper price. How are the masses expected to know it's wrong? Guess none of you ever went out side the U.S. and bought anything. Gee, I went to Canada a few years back, paid like 15 U.S. Dollars to stay at a Jelly Stone camp ground where in the U.S., it would have 40. I didn't have a bunch of guys in dark glassess on my door step ready to haul off my motorhome because of it nore did I see any crap on the net that it was WRONG WRONG WRONG to spend less for services or goods from outside the U.S. when you can stop off at KOA and spend 2 times as much. It will be interesting at least to see the RIAA try and sue someone who had a account with ALLOFMP3 for downloading music for which was paid for. I can see them now trying to get credit card records and instead of suing the big guy, going after some single mom who's 15 year old used a xmas visa card to sign up, buy songs, now getting sued. Our lobbied (bribed) justice system is a joke, our nations leadership is finally getting repaired/fixed and the internet is still operational.. 1 out 3 isn't bad I guess.
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| rvlikens (Newbie) 4 December 2006 14:11 |
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Oh, and one more item. I think that there should be no DVD's or recorded material period. The only way to hear music, go to a concert that way you know the artists are getting some of the money and the local govt is too. I think for movies, you have to go to the drive in or theather only. No more block buster, netflix or family video. That's the ONLY way the RIAA will be quite but I'm sure some way, they will claim they are loosing money because aliens are intercepting our signals and selling our music on the spacemarket far far away..
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| ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 4 December 2006 14:29 |
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rvlikens
like with link sang the corperations want to impose their regioning will and might where they see fit.
its like doubling the price of a item in the UK from 20 US to 40 EU thats 80 US they want to stop all small time importers so that can make more money off less sales,it boggles the mind on how they think and act,you could be saleing world wide consoles and games via link but no just because they where going to try and sale a few doszen PS3s in the Euro market before you.
Movies and music is the same the price keeps away msot if they sale it abit above cost they would double their rep sell more units and be making alittle less money than they are now.so they are using stale lazy mans logic "OMG if we raise min wage prices will go up and the enconimy will suffer"...ever think at worse if the min wage was doubled prices would go up but since people are making more things would not change much,and if things did not go up people would be buying more....
I so love corporate logic less(sales) = more(money)
Finaly I want to add the main reason that I doubt downloading is such a bad thing people who are willing to spend 100 a month for net and don't buy much wont buy new stuff even they had didn't have the net they would buy used to maximize their money so using corperate logic selling/buying/ trading used things is the most evil thing you can do.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 4 December 2006 14:36
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| jhmblvd (Newbie) 5 December 2006 13:42 |
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It appears as of December 4th allofMP3 is down. The site is up but you can't download. When trying to contact them I was told they were doing maintanance.
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| ChappyTTV (Newbie) 16 December 2006 15:00 |
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MTLBeast
I LOVE YOU!!
Well...not in "that" sense of the word, but your post (and nagr's too) is probably the most intelligent one I have read regarding this topic, in recent days here.
I posted in another article here about the RIAA's lawsuit where a lawyer said that if they won it would essentially be the end of the Internet as it is.
CRAP!
But your insight as an insider of the music industry (I once was as well..musician & sound engineer) is refreshingly simple and straight forward. The same reasons you state are the reasons I also d'load torrents and seed them for awhile..it's not taking money from the artists at all...(for whom I completely support being paid for their work) since they don't make money from CD sales anyway.
They make money from our support at their live performances and purchasing other merchandise like t-shirts at the concerts.
Corporate greed and control is what we are all really fighting against here when we share thru P2P, we are just sick of their lack of morals in any dealings with artists or the public...they don't give a shit about anything but their bottom line and making the shareholders rich (richer than they are already that should read..)
I'm also a Canadian and I own 3 copyrights myself so I understand very well why we have copyright protections and why they're needed in the first place. But the industries have just taken things too far in their quest for ever greater riches and this is our only way to fight back.
We should ALL remember to support the artists themselves for ther hard work, by buying tickets to their concerts/shows when they come to our areas, this way at least we know THEY are getting this money and not the labels, and they know we support them and their work.
So...SEED ON!
I got an email from my ISP regarding the very high output my modem reported to them in their monthly reviews, and they asked that I cut back the amount of traffic or THEY will...I uploaded (well) OVER 70 G's in 20 days ;).....Ooopss...sorry (yah, right!)
I now keep it just under 50 G's a month, which is the number they asked me to keep it to, to avoid an automatic throttle-back from their equipment.
But to offset my sharing of music, I have also gone to 4 concerts in my province in the last 6 months and have plans to go to 5 or 6 more next year. I will ALWAYS support the Live Concerts when they come my way, to make sure the musicians actually get PAID for thier work. I have taken in well over 200 concerts since 1969 and have no plans to slow down anytime soon. Maybe I've even seen you MTLBeast, sometime in those journeys...never know!
(sorry I rambled a bit there..)
Long Live the "Live Show".... a Quick Painful Death to the RIAA & MPAA!
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