James Delahunty
21 May 2007 18:46
In the ongoing effort by the music industry to squash Russian MP3 download site, AllofMP3.com, Police have raided and shut down an online voucher system used by the site. The action follows a pan-European investigation, conducted by the global recording industry body, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and UK record companies' association, BPI, which led to the arrest of a 25-year-old male in Bow, London.
The individual was allegedly the UK-based European agent for AllofMP3.com, facilitating the sale of digital downloads by advertising and selling vouchers through auction sites such as eBay and the website allofmp3vouchers.co.uk. That website has now been taken offline. The vouchers contained a code that allowed UK and European consumers to access and download music from AllofMP3.
The vouchers cost about £10 each, which would buy you more tracks than you would think. The Russian site sells MP3 downloads for far less than iTunes and other authorized sellers. The IFPI and record companies around the world maintain that AllofMP3 is an illegal site, even though it claims it complies with copyright law in Russia. The company lost the ability to be paid via PayPal, Visa, Mastercard etc. last year, and the record industry is now looking at how it can block the site's revenue even more.
AllofMP3 reportedly ranks second only to iTunes in the UK in terms of popularity. "Allofmp3.com is illegal in Russia, the US, the UK and everywhere else in the world. The action announced today is the latest to highlight Allofmp3.com's long and undistinguished history of stealing music from artists, composers and record producers and selling it at a profit," John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of IFPI, said.
Source:
Press Release