Ben Reid
18 Oct 2006 16:12
Controversial digital music download site AllofMP3.com was dealt another blow today as credit card company Visa International severed ties with the site in compliance with recent Russian legislation and international copyright law.
"It's no longer permitted to accept Visa cards," said Simon Barker, a Visa International spokesman. "The action we've taken is in line with legislation passed in Russia and international copyright law."
Low prices and ease of use have made AllofMP3 a winner with music fans, but the site has been on the wrong end of a lot of negative press from music industry representatives, many of whom claim the site is illegitimate as it doesn't pay sufficient royalties to artists. The MediaServices-owned site, however, has always maintained that it operates legally under Russian copyright law, and also claims that attempts to compensate the recording industry have been turned down.
"In six years of operation we have never been convicted by a Russian court or declared illegal," said defiant MediaServices' Director General Vadim Mamotin. "Under Russian law, we are 100 percent legal."
The site, which boasts five million subscribers and a growth rate of 5,000 a day, pays the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS) a 15 percent cut of its sales, it claims. But various representatives of the music industry have issued a statement calling for closure of the site, whilst maintaining that both ROMS and AllofMP3 operate illegally.
"Under the copyright laws of virtually every country in the world, including Russia, it is illegal to distribute recordings without the permission of the rights owners," read the statement, backed the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and of course, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "ROMS has no mandate from international rights holders to license the site in or outside of Russia."
Source:
International Herald Tribune