Russian download site linked to music piracy
Rising consumer popularity is turning AllofMP3.com, a music downloading service based in Moscow, into a global Internet success story, but with a catch - the site may well be illegal.
Operating through what music industry lobbyists say is a loophole in Russia’s copyright law, AllofMP3.com offers a vast catalog of music that includes artists not normally authorized for sale online, like the Beatles and Metallica, at a fraction of the cost of services like the iTunes Music Store owned by Apple Computer.
The songs are sold by the megabyte instead of individually. An album of 10 songs or so on AllofMP3 can cost the equivalent of less than $1, compared with 99 cents per song on iTunes. Unlike songs purchased on iTunes and other commercial services, songs downloaded with AllofMP3’s software can be copied without restrictions.
It is an offer that may seem too good to be true, but in Russia, a country that is frequently cited by news media and content owners as rife with digital piracy and theft of intellectual property, courts have so far allowed the site to operate, despite efforts by the record labels Warner, Universal and EMI to aid prosecutors there.
So great is the official level of concern about AllofMP3 that U.S. trade negotiators warned that the Web site could jeopardize Russia’s long-sought entry into the World Trade Organization.
Meanwhile, consumers are flocking to the site, particularly in Britain, where a survey in March ranked AllofMP3 second only to iTunes in popularity in a survey of self-described music enthusiasts.
Use in the United States reached 345,000 unique visitors in April, an increase of 57 percent over January but a tiny fraction of the 19 million that used the iTunes software, according to comScore Networks, a service that monitors the habits of Internet users.
Music industry officials say AllofMP3 is a large-scale commercial piracy site.
“It is totally unprecedented to have a pirate site operating so openly for so long,” said Neil Turkewitz, executive vice president of the Recording Industry Association of America, which is based in Washington.
AllofMP3.com says on the site that it can legally sell to any user based in Russia and warns foreign users to verify the legality within their countries for themselves. The site also features a wide selection of Russian music, but it is in English, with prices listed in American dollars.
AllofMP3 asserts its legality by citing a license issued by a royalty-collecting society, the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, known as ROMS for its Russian initials.
In most countries, the collecting societies that receive royalty payments for the sale or use of artistic works need reciprocal agreements with overseas copyright holders, according to agencies that represent rights holders.
According to Russia’s 1993 copyright law, however, collecting societies are permitted to act on behalf of rights holders who have not authorized them to do so. The result is that numerous organizations in Russia receive royalties for the use of foreign artistic works, but never pass on that money to the artists or music companies, according to the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, the umbrella organization for collecting societies.
“These collecting agencies are thieves and frauds because they accept money while pretending to represent artists,” said Eric Baptiste, director general of the confederation, commonly referred to by the acronym CISAC.
Source: www.al.com
