In a poorly translated Russian news article, it appears that a Russian court is telling Visa that its refusal to process credit card payments to Allofmp3 was illegal. We’ve covered the shenanigans of Allofmp3 in the past.
Visa and Mastercard blocked payments through Allofmp3.com first, then through Alltunes, as they were accused of copyright infringement. Alltunes did not agree to the mentioned decision and sued in court against the above mentioned Visa agents, who carried out the cut off.
Having tried the case, the court determined the unilateral rejection of the defendant to execute the acquiring contract (credit and debit card payment acceptance) concluded with Alltunes illegal.
Hilarious, the Global economy is coming back to haunt Visa…
That article is too hard to read. I’d love to know how RIAA got Visa to do this because on first look, there is no reason for Visa to care whether or not the underlying transactions are legal or not. So, this decision is a boone to Visa.
Am I missing anything?
Allofmp3.com is dead right? So does this judgement apply to mp3sparks.com too? I can’t be the only one wondering this… “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here!”
I’m going out on a limb here but I agree with VISA.
One of the biggest threats to our liberties comes from identity theft and other frauds committed by scam artists from outside the US. That includes people from Russia as well as Romania and China. Blindly permitting VISA or any financial institute to just transfer money that may (or may not) be for an illegal act is wrong. This would put VISA as an accomplice to the theft.
This isn’t (or shouldn’t) be about the RIAA. The discussion should be about whether or not the transaction would be legal in the financial institution’s home country.
The discussion should be about whether or not the transaction would be legal in the financial institution’s home country.
And that because what, the US is the center of the universe and every law in US should apply to everybody else?
The home country is Russia!!! If you want to do business with that country get to know and follow their laws! Russian court has spoken!
And who gives the shit about your liberties? If you don’t want to get ripped off don’t do business with people you think are scum!!! Maybe we should start another war with Russia and bring this wonderful democracy of ours to them as well…
I’m tired of people telling other that whatever goes in their back yard should apply to every one else….
Yeah, in a way, the US is like a religion trying to force itself on everyone else.
Art,
So if the host country turns its back on international law, it is fine for an American company to go along with that? Sorry, but that is not what international laws tolerate. This is not about having every country make their laws the same as the US or interpret them the same way. It is about an American company taking money from Americans to pay a foreign company for a product basically stolen from Americans.
(Yes, yes, you may argue about whether copyright infringement is theft, but for this discussion I’ll keep it simple.)
The RIAA doesn’t make most people happy and are not the best example to promote. Face it though, they do own the music. They are not being paid royalties by allofmp3 or its successors. Under American law, VISA may be sued by RIAA to halt the payments and get damages.
It has often been argued, including on this forum, that the RIAA should go after the monster counterfeiters. Well guess what. Here is a case of a monster counterfeiter selling music it isn’t entitled to sell to Americans. allofmp3 may legally sell to Russians, but this isn’t Russia. Although the internet doesn’t have borders, countries still do.
VISA should have the discretion of deciding who they will allow to use their service. Should they also facilitate the movement of money from drug deals? How about selling unlicensed software? Or even money to countries our government does not allow trade with? Unless VISA executives would like to spend some time in jail, they have to obey American laws.
#4 – One of the biggest threats to our liberties comes from identity theft and other frauds committed by scam artists from outside the US.
More accurately, one of the many moderate threats to your money is identity theft “committed by scam artists from outside the US.”
One of the biggest threats to our liberty comes from people who trade liberty away in exchange for a false sense of security.
#8, I’ll accept that point. If, however, you have ever been the victim of ID theft, you might take a different view.
#9 – Why?
#10,
Because !
#11 – Well, why didn’t you just say that in the first place?
Oh boy, god’s Grim Reaper,
No.1 International laws? You’re either really young and still believe in Santa or … Look at Google and China, look at our government and torture… and China. Let’s keep international laws out of this… China craps on any and all international laws yet “you and I” (as in Americans) are more than happy to pay for their quality, slave produced products at Wal-Mart and other fine retailers.
No. 2 Don’t mix countries that our government black-listed with Russia. Russia is not on that list, so US corps can do business there.
No. 3 Do you really expect Visa NOT to process a transaction in a coffee shop in Amsterdam for a join? They have to, they can’t discriminate against local laws.
Bottom line, if you’re doing business in a given country you obey their laws!
#7
“Yes, yes, you may argue about whether copyright infringement is theft, but for this discussion I’ll keep it simple.”
No, lets keep it factual. Simplification isn’t always good. Copyright infringement is NOT theft.
“They are not being paid royalties by allofmp3 or its successors. ”
Allofmp3 does pay royalties, the question is do the media companies represented by RIAA accept these payments or not. If they do it’s seen as an endorsement of allofmp3. So they don’t claim them, just sue for ridiculous amounts:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5501
#14, bigby,
I have a parking lot and charge $25 a day to park there. You park there all day and then decide that is too much. So you offer me $2. You owe me $25 so I refuse. Offering me less then 10 % is not paying for the privilege of parking there. Legally that wouldn’t be considered theft, BUT to laypeople it is the same thing. Taking without paying is theft.
VISA and MasterCard are right to not process American requests for Russian music. Doing so makes them accomplices to the non payment of royalties the RIAA rightly believes to be theirs. This has nothing to do with any Russian business selling music in Russia. It has to do with Americans buying music and not paying the due royalties.
Hey, don’t get me wrong. I am no big fan of the RIAA or most of their tactics. The way they have treated their artists is despicable. The way they “sue” ordinary people is unconscionable. Sheet, even most of their product stinks. Yet they are still a legal entity with a right to claim what is owed them.
#15 – Legally that wouldn’t be considered theft, BUT to laypeople it is the same thing.
That’s why they are called laypeople… They are forgiven for being wrong.