Associated Press – December 20, 2006:
Several major record labels sued the operator of the Russian music Web site AllofMP3.com on Wednesday, claiming the company has been profiting by selling copies of music without their permission.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York against Moscow-based Mediaservices, which owns AllofMP3 and another music site, allTunes.com.
A slate of major record labels, including Arista Records LLC, Warner Bros. Records Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and UMG Recordings Inc., are behind the lawsuit.
“Defendant’s entire business … amounts to nothing more than a massive infringement of plaintiffs’ exclusive rights under the Copyright Act and New York law,” according to the lawsuit.
The music companies are seeking a court order against Mediaservices and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
We’ve previously written about AllofMP3’s problems.
How do the laws of New York factor into this?
It is a Russian company. We wanted them to embrace capitalism. They did. Now, we are paying the price of that policy. 🙂
Anybody wanna bet the RIAA is after the list of all people who subscribe to that pirate site? I went there to check it out and they take credit cards. Not a purchase I’d want in my files, given the lack of any protection by Congress of US citizens when those particular sharks attack.
I wonder if the artists will see any of that money….
I wonder how, even if the RIAA wins, they would be able to enforce a judgement against a Russian company?
Will the defendant even bother to show up?
This is just more RIAA silliness.
Hey #3, it is NOT a pirate site. It is totally law abiding totally legal. This is just a scare tactic – scare the clients.
For every song bought, just like RADIO AIRPLAY, a royalty is paid.
The RIAA is not suing all the radio companies for broadcasting for FREE all the copyrighted music, because the radio station pays a royalty.
AllOfMP3.com pays the same royalty.
RIAA is only pissed off because the law in Russia allows for the song to be sold at a lower price.
FWIW, a Radio Station pays something like a penny per song, AllOfMP3 pays more than that.
I am a repeat customer, and I am NOT breaking any laws, US or Canadian, by downloading.
I would be against the law if I distributed the downloaded music over the Internet, which I never do, or if I burned copies and sold them.
Even in the US, it is NOT illegal to download songs using Bitorrent or Kazaa, Limewire, etc. The illegal portion is if you SHARE what you download.
Just like you can record songs off the radio station – you are receiving – not distributing.
So #3, rest assured, you are well within your rights to use AllOfMP3.com.
#6, Mark
I have to go with you on this. It is a scare tactic designed to scare away customers. Similar to SCO and their Linux crap.
#6. I agree with you. However, when you use a torrent you are sharing the file.
Anyways, shouldn’t the riaa go after those people actually making and selling counterfeit disks? Or is that business declined since the internet took off and it’s just easier to bully everyone>
arggh
#6 and #7 will do well in prison together.
So if you Bittorrent an MP3 file for a song you legally OWN on CD, but was just too lazy to rip, you are breaking the law, since you are sharing “packets” of that file to others.
When you save a file to your hard disk, from any online MP3 store, you are not breaking any laws, period.
Some artists GIVE AWAY one of the songs in MP3 form on their official website. It’s still copyrighted. You cannot distribute it.
I for one, will continue to use AllOfMp3.com over Torrent/file sharing because I know I’m getting high quality and royalties are being paid legally.
As for James Hill and TJGeezer, as JoeCartoon sez it, Wuss. Read your rights and exercise them.
Both sites have never paid royalties. They just claim to as a smoke screen. You are paying to get a DRM free version of a track the sites are stealing. If the US courts declare it illeagal, then the RIAA has means of going after US customers for recieving stolen goods (or some such violation).
It wont be “scare tactics” until the RIAA goes after people downloading music from these sites.
#11,
It’ll be just a lot of noise and no action. Allofmp3 can’t be legally served. The Federal Court doesn’t even have jurisdiction and any award couldn’t be collected. If the RIAA wants to stop allofmp3 then they would have to go to Moscow and use their courts. And I don’t see that happening.
The RIAA can’t go after the d/l ers simply because they won’t know who they are. It would not be in allofmp3’s interest to release any customer list. Then the RIAA can’t go after Visa or Mastercard for their data because that would infringe on international treaties that prohibit it.
The RIAA is wasting their time.
I think AllofMP3 is great record companies are not as crazy to think they can keep this up in other parts of the world as it seems they are in the US. there is an increasing group of people turning away from them and its not becuase of free or cheap music its because of their attitude to their own customers.
#13, Nice spin, but totally wrong. There just isn’t any great quality new music out there.
There are either some wannabes, old stars making comebacks, old stars with a new hit that sounds just like they did in 1978, or digitally remastered golden oldies. There is nothing new out there to grab people’s attention. That plus the whole music scene has fragmented into so many genres there is little wide appeal of any artist.
Blaming the attitude of the record companies misses the whole problem. No one wants to promote and mature artists. The whole radio thing has congealed into a few huge networks that play standard play lists usually consisting of old tunes with a few safe newer ones tossed in.