Odd music industry silence regarding Russian web music merchant

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Reply-To: <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 07:39:18 -0800
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Odd music industry silence regarding Russian web
music merchant



[Note:  This item comes from reader Steve Schear.  DLH]

> From: Steve Schear <s.schear () comcast net>
> Date: February 12, 2005 11:04:59 PM PST
> To: dewayne () warpspeed com
> Subject: Odd music industry silence regarding Russian web music
> merchant
>
>
>
> Since November 2003 the web music merchant www.allofmp3.com, operated
> by the Russian company Media Services, has been openly selling some of
> the most popular western music at a fraction of the cost of widely
> touted American sites, such as Apple's hugely successful iTunes,
> Rhapsody, MusicMatch, Napster, Sony Connect. Clients can select from a
> wide variety of encoding options (e.g., AAC, MP3, OGG, WMA 9 Lossless,
> Monkey's Audio, OptimFROG and FLAC) starting at rates of 128kbps all
> the way to full CD (.wav files).  Unlike its major competitors
> Allofmp3 sells the tracks by the megabyte.  Beginning in January rates
> were doubled to USD 0.02/MB.  Instead of paying USD 1.00 per track
> AllofMP3 users pay less than USD 0.10 and less the USD 2.00 per album.
>  Currently the site boasts almost 30,000 albums from all genre and it
> all appears legal for the moment.
>
> The legal skinny
> How does ALLofMP3 prevent being shut down? They do it the old fashion
> way: legally. There is a loophole in the Russian copyright legislation
> that makes services like Allofmp3 possible. Apparently this loophole
> cannot be closed easily.
>
> Allofmp3 has signed agreements for this with Russian Organization for
> Multimedia & Digital Systems (<http://www.roms.ru>www.roms.ru).
> According to their license
> <http://www.allofmp3.com/index2.shtml?affiliate=nl13>allofmp3, has the
> right to use musical compositions by providing downloads. Under the
> license agreement Allofmp3 pays out fees to ROMS for downloaded
> materials that are subject to the Russian Federation Copyright And
> Related Rights Law. ROMS is a member of CISAC
> (<http://www.cisac.org>www.cisac.org) - the International
> confederation of authors and composers societies. ROMS manages
> intellectual rights in the Russian Federation. All third party
> distributors licensed by ROMS are required to pay a portion of the
> revenue to the ROMS. ROMS in turn, is obligated to pay most of that
> money (aside from small portion it needs for operating expenses) to
> artists. Both Russian and foreign.
> This license is only supposed to allow content to be sold to Russians.
> The site doesn't appear to do non-Russian advertising and promotion,
> though they do have an English version of the site available (they say
> its to address problems with Russian language-encoding standards which
> existed they launched but that many Russian nationals living outside
> of the country prefer to use the English version for browsing). They
> claim its a site created for Russians but those who come to their site
> from abroad are welcome and are provided with full service.  Sales to
> non-Russians are said to be 'insignificant' but I rather think its
> because their management has wisely chosen a Russian processor
> www.cyberplat.com that does not offer AllofMP3 direct access the
> information from user credit cards. They get only notifications about
> successful transactions. Plausible deniability is as smart in business
> as politics.
>
> The Music Industry claims that Allofmp3 is illegal but their own
> lawyers tell them "... the music industry doesn't have much chance in
> succeeding (if they attack these companies who are using music files
> on the Internet under current Russian laws)."  Instead they are
> pushing for changes in Russian copyright law but progress is glacial.
> Chances that the loophole will be closed on short term are low and
> there is great resistance to changes.
>
> As for the legality of non-Russian clients downloading from allofmp3
> this is country dependent.  In countries with liberal copyright
> protections, like the Netherlands, downloading is legal.  In countries
> with stricter copyright protections its less clear.
>
> MP3's, OGG's, etc are not illegal in the USA and therefore can be
> imported. There is also no law against importing music from other
> countries (including Russia). Because you are buying this legally in
> Russia and then importing to the USA, this should be 100% legit. The
> only applicable U.S. law appears to relate to the "Infringing
> importation of copies or phonorecords".  But even this statute
> "...does not apply to importation, for the private use of the importer
> and not for distribution..."  If MP3's, OGG's etc are in fact
> considered phonorecords, U.S. citizens can legally buy these as long
> if they are for private use and not for distribution. If MP3s, OGG's
> etc. are not considered phonorecords, no import laws apply. The
> sections of digital audio recording and sound recording have no
> mention of importation. Bottom line: Downloading from Allofmp3 is
> legal for U.S. Citizens, as long as the files are for private use and
> not for distribution.
>
> More details of the legality can be found at
> http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm


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