AllofMP3.com escapes criminal lawsuit, for now
On February 2004 the Computer Crimes division of Moscow City Police recommended that prosecutors initiate a criminal lawsuit against AllofMP3.com, a Russian music site selling MP3 downloads by the megabytes. The investigation was initially launched at the request of IFPI Moscow. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry previously sued a similar Spanish project, with PureTunes.com settling with the industry for $10 million.
The case of AllofMP3.com was further complicated by compulsory licensing, adopted by Russian legislature. Compulsory licensing stipulates that licenses should be issued in non-discriminatory manner to anyone who wants to get one on reasonable terms. Russian Multimedia and Network Society was in charge of establishing the reasonable terms, and according to Russian legislation, anyone could distribute music, provided they track downloads and pay back some nominal fee. This is very different from the legislature in the United States, where a music distributor would have to gain a license before selling any music online, and furthermore, could be denied such license for whatever reasons.
On March 4th prosecutor’s office of Moscow’s Southwestern region refused to charge AllofMP3.com in a criminal lawsuit. What’s interesting is that AllofMP3.com did not win the case due to the compulsory licensing legislated in Russia. The prosecutor’s office affirmed that the Russian music site was distributing copyrighted music from its site, and in many cases did not have a proper license to distribute them. Russian criminal law severely punishes attempts to distribute copyrighted music without proper licensing procured first. However, Russian law is quite specific about distribution of material goods, as the law usually applies to CD and DVD pirating.
Moscow prosecutor’s office noted that Russian music site does not distribute material goods, and since is not subject to prosecution under the criminal law. AllofMP3.com distributed digital goods via Internet, of which Russian criminal law says nothing. Moreover, prosecutors arrived at the conclusion that since no physical copies of the goods are delivered to the customer, AllofMP3.com can be treated as a service where site visitors can listen to the music. (The fact that it’s more than possible to burn an MP3 to an audio CD apparently escaped law enforcement).
AllofMP3.com cannot be charged for piracy, prosecutors ruled, under the current criminal law. Which does not prevent musicians and labels from launching civil lawsuits for cases where AllofMP3.com sold copyrighted music and did not pay back the copyright holders. This is the most likely development for label lawsuits in the future, but they will be quite difficult to win if AllofMP3.com can prove it made all the necessary payments to ROMS. Another way, of couse, would be to change the current criminal law to introduce DMCA-like clauses that specifically relate digital distribution and distribution of physical goods. It’s no coincidence that Russian office of IFPI is located in Moscow’s Tverskaya Street, which is also the address for the parliament of the country.
Update: ZDNet called the IFPI spokesperson in Moscow to receive the following response:
A spokeswoman for IFPI said Monday that the organization had not heard an official response from the Moscow prosecutors. “We have received no confirmation of any decision, and we do not expect it for some time,” said IFPI spokeswoman Fiona Harley. “However, if it is true that the prosecutor has not taken the case this would be very disappointing, considering the blatant and large-scale infringement that continues to take place.”
Update: Slate magazine answers one of the AllofMP3.com FAQ questining legality. According to them, selling the music to the US customers would not be legal.
The discussion above about what Allofmp3.com is allowed to do with international distribution rights assumes the site actually owns those rights. It doesn’t—at least not according to the recording industry. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is the worldwide organization of recording companies, and it claims that Allofmp3.com has not been licensed to distribute its members’ “repertoire” in Russia or anywhere else. While Allofmp3.com claims it owns distribution rights from the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, the record companies say, “Nyet.”
March 7th, 2005 at 6:36 am #Bobby
Interesting, interesting…
March 7th, 2005 at 6:46 am #jayber.org :: residual links
Squirrely Behavior
>> AllofMP3.com escapes criminal lawsuit, for now” href=”http://moskalyuk.com/blog/allofmp3com-escapes-criminal-lawsuit-for-now/475″>>>> AllofMP3.com escapes criminal lawsuit, for now…
March 7th, 2005 at 8:23 am #Dr. J
Power to the People, right on!
March 7th, 2005 at 9:09 am #Tino's weblog
>>> AllofMP3.com escapes criminal lawsuit, for now
>>> AllofMP3.com escapes criminal lawsuit, for now
As reported to me by The Radiospy and then confirmed on Slashdot via Gizmodo, this seems to be the most in-depth analysis of the ruling so far. Good good. Allofmp3.com is awesome and how it should…
March 7th, 2005 at 10:29 am #orangebuffalo
Moscow DA to record companies: no pants for you
Following an earlier piece of news, the Russian music-downloading site that I like, AllOFMP3.com, is apparently off the hook for the time being. Supposedly Russian copyright law prohibits distributing pirated physical copies of music, but doesn’t plac…
March 7th, 2005 at 12:22 pm #Injoke.org
Cheap Russian Music Saved, For Now
AllofMP3.com was under investigation recently, but has been let off the hook by the Russian DA of the South-West district, who denied IPFIs request to open a criminal case against Allofmp3.com., because of a loophole in Russian law which allows users …
March 8th, 2005 at 9:07 am #Alif Maqsurah
Well, FM radio broadcasts can taped but they’re still considered places where you can listen to music.
March 8th, 2005 at 11:45 am #Elastico.net
…
#AllmyMP3s vende canciones “a granel” gracias a un agujero en las leyes rusas [via] Cmprate 100 Megas de canciones gracias a que las leyes solamente prevn el robo de bienes fsicos #Esta es la verdadera cara de la “democracia” en…
March 9th, 2005 at 1:29 am #marv on record
AllOfMp3.com safe for “a couple more years”
Update on the AllOfMp3 investigation situation: “AllofMP3.com cannot be charged for piracy, prosecutors ruled, under the current criminal law. Which does not prevent musicians and labels from launching civil lawsuits for cases where AllofMP3.com sold …
March 9th, 2005 at 8:57 am #Spontaneous Monotony
Moscow tells IFPI where to go
In a show of integrity sadly lacking in the West, the Moscow prosecutor’s office has decided not to prosecute AllOfMP3.com for piracy because… they’re not doing anything illegal. They pay all the royalties due to the local collection agency, but u…
March 10th, 2005 at 7:04 am #Sideblog
Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career. Streaming video over the Local Area Network. Works like iTunes sharing….
March 11th, 2005 at 12:55 pm #tygar-blog.com
Copyright conflicts
This case is a fascianting commentary on the state of international copyright law.
March 16th, 2005 at 11:05 am #Steve Lawson
I love Allofmp3.com! I guess that’s why I have downloaded over 40,000 songs from them! They are now a little more expensive. You use to be able to download an unlimited number of songs for $14.95 a month. Some days, i would get over 500 songs.
Steve Lawson
March 18th, 2005 at 2:35 pm #spontaneous scribbles
AllofMP3.com can be treated as a service where site visitors can listen to the music. (The fact that it’s more than possible to burn an MP3 to an audio CD apparently escaped law enforcement).
So what! You have always been able to “burn” a TV or Radio broadcast (music or otherwise) onto cassette or video and no-one equated this with copying a record to avoid payment. The fact that it can be recorded does not alter whether it is a public broadcast or not.
The Russian Prosecutors Office seem sensibly to have recognized this.
March 25th, 2005 at 1:09 am #Julio Vargas
Allofmp3.com is the best. As comment no. 13 says, there was a time in which you paid $15 and get unlimited downloads. Those times were incredible.
It’s hard to understand why musicians want more money, considering that money doesn’t make someone to make better music.
Look this example: Metallica was a great band with no money. Now that they have millions, they record boring, idiot songs.
That’s very sad.
And by the way, why is everyone comparing to allofmp3.com with iTunes? Itunes brings no advantage or a innovative service. If I want a CD for $10, I would better pick it at the CD-shop, and I have the physical cd which I can put it in mp3 format millions of millions of times!!!
March 28th, 2005 at 12:09 pm #Ben
The Russians, by not updating their laws in years, have a copyright system that allows for future innovation far better than our ever updating laws. Ironic to say the least.
April 13th, 2005 at 2:53 pm #toshirosworld.com » AllofMP3.com off the hook for now
[...] ssian website allofmp3.com has dodged a bullet with the Moscow DA. Their actions are "theoretically illegal" because they don’t have the pe [...]
April 28th, 2005 at 10:28 am #Happy allofmp3 user
As a previous user of now termed ‘illegal’ p2p software, I found that sites that offered on-line music were either charging anywhere from 1.00 to 1.50 Canadian for a single track. Given the option of 2 cents US per mb and MY choice of format without digital rights management, who is not going to try the services?
I think the service is great!
April 28th, 2005 at 12:12 pm #mfox
is it legal in the us?
May 27th, 2005 at 6:50 pm #» Blog Archive » Allofmp3s.com slips by the Russian laws
[...] s provided back to the copyright holder. Changing this law in Russia could take years. Read more… This entry was posted [...]
December 20th, 2005 at 10:31 am #Alex
I found the same site, but more rock music
http://www.mp3sugar.com/
January 8th, 2006 at 10:38 am #Waren
I use http://www.mp3sugar.net/ With music downloads of all popular artists at only USD 0.10 a song, this can be the final step for most people to buy music online and not download it using peer to peer software.
February 13th, 2006 at 6:46 pm #chapaevsk9
“On February 2004 the Computer Crimes division of Moscow City Police recommended that prosecutors initiate a criminal lawsuit”…
At this point, I became bored, and did not read further. There is no more pathetic,no more poorly-paid, and no more corrupt bunch of criminals than Russian militsya. The idea of an arm of Moscow police “recommending” that any legal action be taken against anyone is only testament to the incorruptibility of the object of their “investigation”. Apparently, these stupid idiots from Moscow police were unable to extort protection money from allofmp3. As for allofmp3.com, I say MOLODYETS!!!
March 24th, 2006 at 4:57 am #LilMikey.com
[...] As everyone had expected from day one the IFPI, Russian arm of the RIAA, prompted an investigation into the loophole allofmp3.com is using to defend their distribution mechanism. After only a couple weeks, the Russian DA has found that the loophole is in-fact legit and no criminal investigation into the company would be opened. Allofmp3.com is off the hook for now. The likely next step (which has probably been in progress for longer than we know) is for the IFPI to attempt to change Russian law to close the loophole. Had this whole quagmire occurred in the US, that would pretty much be the end of the story however Russian politicians, while still lobbied heavily, aren’t the entertainment industries stool pigeons like here in the States. What’s more likely to happen is the local RIAA will strong-arm our legislative system into passing some short-sighted overly broad legislation that somehow makes downloading from allofmp3.com illegal… and in the process will probably make reading Russian blogs, downloading Russian Word documents, speaking Russian, and making long distant phone calls to Russia illegal as well. [...]
March 27th, 2006 at 8:58 am #johnnie hurtig
Now I get a message that says “502 bad gateway”.
Have they shut down allofmp3now?????
jh
March 28th, 2006 at 4:26 am #Me
I also cget the same “502 Bad Gateway” message. They must have closed it down. What a pity!!!!
April 2nd, 2006 at 7:11 am #Gena Protas
WIthout court and investigation
My family comming from the Russia in 1990. I loose them hier. I am from Minsk.
I and my son in very bad situation. Some groups of people creat for us artificial
incidents. They wont to kidnapping me with police and ambulanses to the hospital
for death injection,especially from jewish hospital Mimonidas.They wont to kill in the
same time my son in the place, where he is working right now, and where they involved
hem.They not let us to go anewhere ,they folloving every our steep
Help us if you can. My adress is 1802 53 street apt.C2 Brooklyn New York 11204
Gena Protas
April 4th, 2006 at 9:32 pm #CDNYC
ALLofMP# had some server problems, but they are back. They seem to be behind in up loading sample tracks & artwork for the new release page, but they are 98% functioning.
CD
April 20th, 2006 at 5:50 am #amanda
I can access http://www.allofmps.CZ though. I cannot read it so it’s a bit of a problem. Does anyone know what’s up with the .com site? is it down permanantly? I’ll be so bummed.
May 4th, 2006 at 10:18 pm #>> AllOfMP3.com sued by IFPI again @ Alex Moskalyuk Online
[...] US government turned up the heat on Russia’s anti-piracy measures, which till about last week amounted to doing pretty much nothing, and Dennis Kvasov, owner of MediaServices LLC, which develops and runs AllofMP3.com as well as TechCrunch-loved AllTunes is now in court again, on the same criminal trial that AllOfMP3 escaped before. [...]
May 5th, 2006 at 12:55 pm #darren
I say ALLOFMP3 rocks !! Whether it is legal or not isnt my concern. What is my concern is the fact that i can get a track for 15 pence instead of paying £15 for a CD.
The only people to blame for having to sue companies, is the record companies themselves for overcharging !
I say share to max and let the good times roll!! lol
P.S Why do popel ask stupid questions that have been answered in a thread :-
Quote:: mfox Says:
April 28th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
is it legal in the us?
Doh !!!!
May 13th, 2006 at 4:24 pm #KK
Uh-oh–Dennis Kvasov is in court again-? I just paid allofmp3 $15, and now the service is unattainable! The message that they are “closed for maintenance” had appeared for 4 days at the Web site–is anyone else getting this? Is the site DONE?
May 14th, 2006 at 10:49 pm #Brian
Yep, getting the same thing. Although I had ordered an album a week ago that I was able to download yesterday using their program, allTunes, I can’t connect in anymore at all. Am wondering if something’s up…
May 15th, 2006 at 12:05 am #Freefall
Has it gone hmm! looks like it cannot even get a reply anymore andybody else having problems
May 15th, 2006 at 8:18 am #DC
I’ve been trying for four days to get in without luck. I wish the notification that comes up, that the server is closed for maintenance, could be more descriptive. If they can tell us that, they can give us an estimate of when it might be up again, or tell us that they are a victim of either legal or hacker activities. To say nothing just fuels speculation, and I can’t imagine they would want that.
May 15th, 2006 at 10:42 am #Dumb Dumbley
RIP: allofmp3.com
May 15th, 2006 at 1:45 pm #A
Yep, been a week and “Attention | Внимание
We are sorry but the server is closed for maintainance.
Приносим свои извинения, сервер остановлен на обслуживание.”
is still up. Hell, i had 40$ CAD left on there, they better pay me back.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:14 pm #Ron
I had a liitle money on there as well (15 CAD$) but they can keep it. By far the best music download site out there. Not only the cost but the encoding choices. I guess it got too popular for its own good. Better than kazaa, bit torrent. Easier than ripping my own CDs. Sorry to see it gone. I’m still hoping that it is a server problem but……
May 16th, 2006 at 2:13 am #San sima
Allofmp3 was affordable to many people and had huge collection of music,all types of music. It was a very popular site. So sorry if they’ll shut down.
May 16th, 2006 at 3:38 am #natalie
boohoo, so i just paid for some albums to be downloaded before it went down. I am like A that says he had $40 CAD on there, it was a risk we all had to take, but damn, what a great site, and was a great addiction. I loved coming home with a couple of beers and just chilling out and previewing and downloading. Loved it when you download an album then it refers to another similar . Mp3 sugar seems pretty good too, looking for alts, but not letting me register for some reason. You would think with its popularity someone else would jump on the wagon, but I guess not. Still, here’s hoping, and I keep trying to get into the site every night when I get home, just hoping…
May 16th, 2006 at 4:52 am #garibaldi
quote : I’m still hoping that it is a server problem but……
I won’t be so optimistic ! It was a great site but they were signs that something was going wrong because x-rost (the prepaid card that you can bough via paypal) was down just as allofmp3 now because of “serveur” problems… Mmm, ? Coincidences ?
May 16th, 2006 at 7:19 am #Bob
A spark of hope: the url does respond again and I can login and search / view my account data. They have added something like an SMS service (did not see that before) for payment of albums. Ordering is ‘temporary unavailable” though…
May 16th, 2006 at 11:00 am #steve lynch
Just for the record, your $40.00 credit on allofmp3.com is only a $40.00 authorization. See, by adding money, you’re only adding the authorization to withdraw up to that amount. chronopay only bills you on successfully downloaded music. that’s why after each session on allofmp3, you’ll have a bunch of little charges on your debit card for $3.00, 10.00, etc…. so if allofmp3 goes tits up, you haven’t lost any money at all… so rest easy…. that $40.00 is still in your bank account.
May 16th, 2006 at 1:02 pm #mike taylor
The order by SMS has always been there. It worked too - i used it once,m but i dont want to try it now (£2)!
Sites back, and im so pleased!
Cant buy anything though! bummer. Well, at least thats a glimmer of hope (well, personally id saymore than a glimmer!)
MiKe
May 16th, 2006 at 4:48 pm #Ron
My credit card shows the full amount purchases in one shot. I have chagred around $150 so far in $15 increments.
BTW garibaldi, there was a problem with paypal for quite some time a few montshs back so I’m not sure that the current situation with paypal is an indication that there is a problem. I can connect now but cannot buy more songs. I agre with Mike that it”s more than a glimmer. Back up and running within a few days is my prediction.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:30 pm #garibaldi
Hi Ron,
just to say that i’m glad that allofmp3 seems to be back.
But about Paypal, i must have bad written my sentence (i’m not good in english, sorry, i do my best ;). I was talking about XROST. Xrost was a service that you can use to buy prepaid card for buying tracks on allofmp3. The great thing about Xrost was that you can pay them with Paypal because Allofmp3 don’t accept Paypal anymore. I felt more secure using paypal than my credit card. For now i wait for the return of Xrost or something like that.
best regards to everybody !
May 16th, 2006 at 6:38 pm #Ron
My mistake garibaldi, I’m not familiar with XROST. I wasn’t aware that Allofmp3 didn’t accept paypal anymore. Personally I wouldn’t give my credit card number to a Russian site at this time. I know I wouldn’t be liable for payment, and that the chance of getting ripped off is small but it is still a headache to work out when something goes wrong with credit cards (I’m speaking from personal experience, not with an on-line purchase but unauthorized use).
Ron.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:50 am #DC
Allofmp3 home page has been available for a day or so but ordering wasn’t possible.
This morning I tried to order and got the screen where you choose your download bitrate and it was available, so it seemed that all was working again. I didn’t order at the time.
Later, I did try to order and now I’m getting this message:
“Ordering is temporarily not available.
The site is undergoing some technical restructuring.
We work hard to resume the service. We expect to put back all the functions shortly.
Please, accept our appologies for this ongoing disruption.”
So, it seems that it’s still a matter of time before everything works again. At least they are making the effort, so they haven’t been shut down yet.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:45 pm #nihilobstat
still saying as DC above - dammit, I only got onto this site a month ago, but it’s been a revelation. anyone know if there’s anything similar around?
May 18th, 2006 at 5:34 am #DC
In response to Nihilobstat about similar sites to allofmp3:
After Allofmp3 went down I joined http://www.mp3search.ru/. It’s another Russian site similar to allofmp3. Advantages: it’s up and has some content not found on allofmp3, plus it’s cheaper and by default has a higher bit rate (usually 256K in my experience). Disadvantages: it doesn’t have a sleek interface like Alltunes for downloading so it is a bit more clunky, and I didn’t see any option for choosing your bit rate, although it would be rare I would need more than 256K but might opt for 192K if given the option. Also, it isn’t laid out as well as allofmp3, but the music is there and you can search for it. I downloaded Reget Pro, a download manager, that does a really good job of batch downloads and while it isn’t Alltunes and isn’t integrated into the service, it works well.
When you join, you have to put in $30 to start. I was hesitant about giving out my Credit Card number so I signed up with my Bank for online Visa protection to be on the safe side. However, I’ve read in various places on the web that people have had positive experiences and haven’t heard of anybody getting scammed. This site seems to have been up awhile, and certainly they wouldn’t last very long if they scammed their customers. They appear to be very customer oriented, just like allofmp3, but again I’m a newbie here and time will tell.
I gave my credit card number and got a receipt in my email, which I thought was a good sign. I’ve watched my bank account and have not seen any additional charges. So far I’ve downloaded $20 worth and it’s been a positive experience. I get better bit rates than I did from allofmp3 (which was usually 192K) for cheaper and have found some music I was never able to find on allofmp3, although some music I could find on allofmp3 is not on mp3search.ru.
I’ve been a member of allofmp3 for several months with positive experiences and so far I’ve been a member on mp3search.ru for only a week. If allofmp3 comes back, I’ll definitely use it again because it is really a great site, but now that I’ve tasted mp3search.ru, I’ll use it too, so long as my experience remains positive. Between the two, I have a great diversity of music to choose from, and if I can’t find what I’m looking for one on site I can try the other one.
May 18th, 2006 at 5:55 am #Shane
Open again and ready for business!
May 18th, 2006 at 7:21 am #San Sima
Just downloaded music from allofmp3. It works! The only thing is I can’t listen to samples
previews. Has anyone tried yet to do that? Please inform.
May 18th, 2006 at 7:30 am #Bob
About (credit card) payments: as far as I know, at AllOfMp3 you are buying credit using payments. My payments are fully redrawn from my credit card, directly (even if I did not order/download anything). AllOfMp3 therefore distinguishes between payments and (current) credit. Due to discounts and gifts, payments and available credit will not always be exactly 1:1. My conclusion: if you make a payment and never return, the money is at Allofmp3. Therefore, my advice would be only to make small payments.
May 18th, 2006 at 9:01 am #DC
Just downloaded a song sucessfully for the first time in a week!
The download was slow, less than 20kps, but maybe servers are overloaded now with people scrambling to download.
Still can’t preview a song.
May 18th, 2006 at 12:05 pm #Vivisecting Media » Blog Archive » To download or not to download?
[...] Sources: Museekster.com - “AllOfMP3 FAQ” Museekster.com - “AllOfMP3 Interview” Wikipedia - Article on AllOfMP3.com moskalyuk.com - “AllofMP3.com escapes criminal lawsuit, for now” Reurters UK - “WTO entry must be in Russia’s interest - Putin” [...]
May 18th, 2006 at 1:53 pm #Musicnerd
I’m tired of allofmp3 and worry about my money i used to pay them. I switched to http://www.mp3sale.ru
They provide the same service but for lower prices (one track for 10 cents), and don’t have problems with “server maintainence”. They accept my Vise card and credit me extra funds.
Just pop in to my blog to read the review
musicnerd.blog.com
May 19th, 2006 at 2:19 am #nihilobstat
thanks for the alternatives guys. nice to see this one back again, but I don’t think I’ll be putting big slabs of money into it again - you just don’t know if it’s going to be there tomorrow - although of course that just goes with the territory, you can’t have your cake and eat it too!
May 26th, 2006 at 11:14 pm #AllOfMp3.com Dodges Criminal Lawsuit - The Digg Effect - Search for Diggs or get Dugg
[...] After being investigated by the Russian Music Industry (On March 4th), AllOfMp3 has survived. They were able to survive because Russian Copyright laws are very different and does not have any laws distributing music over the Internet. So go get all the music you want!read more | digg story [...]
September 28th, 2006 at 7:13 am #boris
I use http://www.lavamus.com/ With music downloads of all popular artists at only USD 0.10 a song, this can be the final step for most people to buy music online and not download it using peer to peer software.
December 21st, 2006 at 1:12 am #by rivig () | LjSEEK.COM
[...] я вас поздравляю. но не тем, с чем вы подумали. а с надеждой на здравый смысл. [...]
February 21st, 2007 at 2:10 am #Drake
When Visa banned AllOfMp3 I found another great site iomoio.com. Thought I should share.
TC all.