Random noise, incoherent thoughts, whatever.
RIAA sues allofmp3.com for copyright infraction in New York. They are going for the maximum penalty afforded by the law…$150K per infraction. That comes to $1.65 trillion USD.
How they can sue a Moscow based company in New York escapes me, but I’m sure the RIAA lawyers found a loophole to exploit.
The $1.65 trillion USD claim just illustrates very poignantly how ridiculous the laws governing copyright violations are.
-TPP
Visa has stopped processing credit card payments for allofmp3.com.
Looks like the US is pulling no punches trying to get the site shut down.
-TPP
allofmp3.com, the thorn on RIAA’s side for years now, has released their version of iTunes, essentially.
The interface looks simple and easy to use. I’m sure RIAA is not happy. Good.
-TPP
Extremetech does an excellent job at reviewing and comparing the current crop of online music services.
allofmp3.com and other marginal services are only included as an aside, which is a shame, although the review gives them high marks at the end.
-TPP
So, allofmp3.com, a Russian music download site, claims they’re legit and are paying royalties to what they say is the Russian authority that collects royalty payments for musicians.
Well, looks like Russian IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) thought otherwise and asked the Moscow City Police Computer Crimes Division to investigate allofmp3.com. The police concluded their investigation earlier this month and are recommending the prosecutors charge allofmp3.com for criminal copyright infringement.
Let’s see what happens next. Will the operators pack their bags and skip town, will they just shut it down and play quiet or will they fight it.
It’s also interesting to see what the copyright stormtroopers in other countries will want to do with the customer list. I’m 100% sure the Russian IFPI will politely ask the Moscow City Police to confiscate the customer list and forget it at IFPI’s mailbox.
-TPP
This week I finally discovered two online music sites operating in Russia RIAA must be mad as hell about.
The sites in question are allofmp3.com and mp3search.ru. Downloads from either service have no DRM whatsoever.
allofmp3.com, operating since 2001, looks very impressive. They charge $.01 or $.02 / megabyte, depending on how you download the music. Their “killer app” is online encoding, which enables you to choose the encoding method (mp3, wma, ogg vorbis, musepack and aac), and the quality of the encoding. For some albums in their catalog they also offer lossless encoding enabling you to download exact copies of the audio CD, and burn the songs into an audio CD, instead of mp3 files.
Both appear to be operating entirely legally according to Russian copyright law, which dates back to the Soviet Union era. Since downloading copyrighted music for personal use is perfectly legal, it is legal to use these services even from within the United States. RIAA will, of course, tell you otherwise, but has so far been unsuccessful in shutting these services down. The law, for once, appears to be on the side of the consumer.
A great review of allofmp3.com is up on museekster.com. The review clarifies the legality of the service(s) quite well.
Up yours, RIAA scum.
-TPP
