AllofMP3 illegal?

holly_johnson

I've just seen this article on the BBC site...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5051826.stm

I always thought this was ok, expecially after the court case in Russia. Obviously not...

loyatemu

well, that's the BPI's opinion and they're hardly unbiased.
I don't think its ever been tested in court.

It probably is illegal outside of Russia, but its not peer-to-peer so the BPI, IRMA etc have no way of going after the users and so far the Russians don't seem interested in shutting down the site. That might change though, as Russia is trying to enter the World Trade Organisation and the americans have said they won't let them in until they deal with copyright violation in general and allofmp3 in particular: http://tinyurl.com/pjupb

base2

Its 'probably' illegal and thats good enough for me.

Bard

So, is what AllOfMP3.com say here complete crap then?

gokgok

base2 wrote:

Its 'probably' illegal and thats good enough for me.

probably isn't 100%

keithclancy

The BBC are a total bunch of Tulips in fairness... they'll report ANYTHING and will go with the side of whoever approached them first without investigating. They put a bloody taxi driver on by accident recently after mixing him up with the guy that was supposed to go on the show and talk about music downloads. The taxi driver didnt have a clue what was going on.

dahamsta

Be fair folks, the article clearly has the word 'illegal' in quotes, and they never actually said it /is/ illegal, just that people have been warned. Scaremongering yes, but the BBC isn't responsible for the gullibility of it's readers. Unfortunately they have to dumb down to their audience at some level, otherwise they won't have an audience. If you want to blame someone, blame the friend of yours that watches Big Brother. Kicking their head in may be the solution.

adam

cgarvey

No media is perfect, but BBC is one of the better / more objective ones, IMO.

The guy wasn't a taxi driver BTW, and nor was he there to talk about music downloads. That clip was very funny though.

Back on topic, I think the greyness of AllOfMP3 is that there's little doubt that it is legal in Russia, it's the law of your own country that's the problem.

Sherifu

Did anyone else read 'International Federation of the Phonographic Industry' as something else?

parsi

keithclancy wrote:

The BBC are a total bunch of Tulips in fairness... they'll report ANYTHING and will go with the side of whoever approached them first without investigating. They put a bloody taxi driver on by accident recently

Amusing really seeing as he was an IT guy going for an interview - hence his vague familiarity with the issues. The Evening Standard [only paper I read whilst in London] discussed this after the event a few weeks ago. However in the last week or so I see loads of videos being stopped in work which purport to talk about the "taxi driver" who was interviewed on a BBC programme...

sturgo

keithclancy wrote:

The BBC are a total bunch of Tulips in fairness... they'll report ANYTHING and will go with the side of whoever approached them first without investigating. They put a bloody taxi driver on by accident recently after mixing him up with the guy that was supposed to go on the show and talk about music downloads. The taxi driver didnt have a clue what was going on.

were you on adrian kennedy last night?


the site has to be illegal. there's no way any company can affoard to sell whole albums for less than $1.50 and single mp3s for 9 cents. you may as well be going to the bay of the pirates.

NIBBS

The site is not illegal - and they have won a court case which means that by law what they do is legitimate. The reason that the prices are what they are is that music in russia is not the same ridiculous prices that they are here and therefore these are the prices.
International copyright laws are fairly complicated, but just because an organisation says something is illegal doesn't make it so, the music corporations are trying to protect the crazy prices they charge in certain countries by trying to ensure we can't purchase the products from other countries.

forbairt

My understanding of allofmp3 is ...

In russia once you purchase an album you have the rights to do with that album as you wish .. you are the copyright holder of that material and can make and sell works based on that ... and thats the legal loop hole ??? someone else can no doubt correct me on this ...

So its legal within russia to purchase these albums ...

The problem is these laws only apply to russia and not ireland / uk / whereever ... so you are actually paying for material that is illegal in your own country

That said I sampled the service before to download 1 track and was well impressed by how professional it all is ... Its how music should be ...

stevejazzx

I've been in Russia a few times (my wife is russian) and know some of poeple who work for allofmp3. com (friends of my wifes cousin) , they filled me in on some stuff.

I was in the 'garbuska' (a shopping center the size of 3 dundrums centers) in moscow drooling over the stuff they available at ridiculous (I mean cheap) prices, I bought albums(cds and dvds which were the professionally finished, except they weren't the original cd design, The stuff wasn't pirated as such , more rebranded and commercially resold. The sale of these materilas is allowed under some very old flimsy law which allows a licensee to commercially duplicate a certain batch size, so pay 1000euro and you are entitled to make 1000 copies but no more, trouble is this is completely unregulated so retailers pay smallest license (if any at all) and make as many copies as they want, now this center was also full of a lot (billions) of pirated stuff, but hilariously they had lcd screens and dvd players so you could test the quality of your pirated movie befroe you bought, nice. Now the Moscow police move freely around this center and all these traders just freely go about their business, my point is there is still massive corruption on a very obvious level in russia ignored by the russian government until such time that someone annoys them, the garbuska is run by organised crime, and rents for trader places and passed over etc.
Allofmp3 is no different, it is squeezing the pulp from flimsy laws to back it up but it's not a clean firm, no question, but the problem is the russians who run are pretty much untouchable except by the russian government, so I very much doubt that we will see it offline anytime soon.

unklerosco

It call end so very soon.. Back up in the courts again...

Popular music download service, AllOfMP3, is set to become a massive international hotspot of dispute!

Russia, where the service is based, is hoping to join the World Trade Organisation - the international conglomerate that regulates business around the world - this year.

However, America, under pressure from powerful (read: rich) political lobbyists with music industry affiliations, says that it will oppose Russia's bid to join if it fails to take action against the website.

This is a move that could have some fairly wide-ranging political implications!

The music industry says that the service is illegal, since it does not operate under international standard copyright laws. It's lawful in Russia by way of a legal loophole.

It really does seem like the days of the service are numbered, given that Russia is not likely to let one small operation stand in the way of such an important political goal.

This is a shame, since AllOfMP3 was a business that proved one thing - that consumers will pay for music on the internet, provided they can have it on their terms, without DRM. The music industry could do well to learn from this.

The popular Russian music site could well be on its way out, after the IFPI prompted the Russian police into another investigation as to the site's legality.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is basically the international version of the RIAA. It has already had a pop at AllOfMP3 last year, with the Russian police coming to the conclusion that it didn't have the authority to investigate the website.

Now, the IFPI has given the d another boot in the behind. The site says that it pays royalties to the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, and that Russia's copyright law doesn't cover online sales. However, the IFPI says that the RMIS doesn't have the legal authority to license AllOfMP3.

Russia wants to join the World Trade Organisation and its lack of intellectual property laws are a major stumbling block - so the police may find themselves under pressure from the higher-ups to clamp down.

This will come as a blow to millions of users around the world, who have been attracted to the site's offering of low prices and lack of DRM. It may be time to get spending those credits quick!

snappieT

cgarvey wrote:

No media is perfect, but BBC is one of the better / more objective ones, IMO.

The guy wasn't a taxi driver BTW, and nor was he there to talk about music downloads. That clip was very funny though.

Back on topic, I think the greyness of AllOfMP3 is that there's little doubt that it is legal in Russia, it's the law of your own country that's the problem.

That greyness has the ability for you to play dumb.

One I have been told it's illegal, I'll stop using it.

cgarvey

snappieT wrote:

That greyness has the ability for you to play dumb.

One I have been told it's illegal, I'll stop using it.

Exactly .. and I'm sure most users are of the same opinion.

John R

The simple fact is that in its home territory the site is 100% legal for now.

It could be argued that it's operation is completely unfair on artists and songwriters, but then the official music industry more than fall into that category also.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/03/songwriters_dmf/

As it is legal in Russia, any illegality of using it from other territories would be very complex issues of international law, it would be akin to prosecuting someone for importing a legally produced CD from Russia.

In reality attempting to prosecute buyers from other countries isn't going to happen, not without new laws explicitly making importing legal music products a crime.

According to this article the russian laws are being changed from Sep 01 2006, what will happen to allofmp3 then is anyone's guess but considering the music industry are still kicking up a stink the laws will still allow the site to offer cheaper DRM free music than the likes of itunes.

Paddy20

All I can say about music sites, such as AllofMp3 is that it is is real pity that I can not download films as well from them.

Are people so naive that they do not realise they have been ripped off for far too long by worldwide retailers and film companies.

Thankfully, time's they are a changing. It reminds me of when pirate radio started from ships including Radio Caroline, they made real pop music available to the people, they were banned, but eventually the establishment hoodlums caved in

P. :cool:

Kenny_D

How are people topping up now? Xrost/Cmpass has been saying its server has reached its daily purchase limit every day now for the last while. I'm really not sure about giving them my credit card details

conjon

Can I assume that I'M ok using my credit card on this site?

Any feedback from users appreciated.

Thanks
Conor

yop

Your grand, I do it all the time with never any issues

Paddy20

conjon wrote:

Can I assume that I'M ok using my credit card on this site?

Any feedback from users appreciated.

Thanks
Conor

AllofMp3 have had my credit card details for a very long time, and I have never had any problems with them.

In any case if you should become the victim of a credit card scam, most credit cards will refund any momies that have fraudulently been charged to your C.C. account number, as they are insured against this. .

P. :cool:

dahamsta

I've always paid by PayPal, and I won't be lodging any more money with them. While I've always been pleased with the service, I don't think I'd be happy providing my credit card details to a chap that's going to take a major hit in revenues at some stage in the not too distant future.

@Paddy20, while you're right, that's a oversimplification. Chargebacks are rarely a simple process, it usually takes time and effort to complete.

adam

Paddy20

Ken Shabby wrote:

I've always paid by PayPal, and I won't be lodging any more money with them. While I've always been pleased with the service, I don't think I'd be happy providing my credit card details to a chap that's going to take a major hit in revenues at some stage in the not too distant future.

@Paddy20, while you're right, that's a oversimplification. Chargebacks are rarely a simple process, it usually takes time and effort to complete.

adam

Yes, but the C.C. user is not the loser. Only recently, I received an e-mail from a foreign goods supplier, stating that my credit card had refused to pay them for my order ?.. after checking with my C.C. provider, I was informed that the business had been struck off their list of accredited internet suppliers I did not receive my order, neither have I received an acceptable explanation from the supplier.

So, my final comment is thank heaven's for Credit Cards and how they protect their innocent users .

P. :cool:

Lawdie

Has anyone found a fix for the timeout error message on allofmp3 explorer?

blastman

What AllOfMP3 has done is highlight how ridiculously over-priced iTunes and other services are. You're paying more or less the same money as for a CD, but getting less (no packaging, crippled music and the danger of losing everything if your hard disc crashes). Why people buy this way and then complain about prices, I don't know.

ElNino

blastman wrote:

What AllOfMP3 has done is highlight how ridiculously over-priced iTunes and other services are. You're paying more or less the same money as for a CD, but getting less (no packaging, crippled music and the danger of losing everything if your hard disc crashes). Why people buy this way and then complain about prices, I don't know.

There was an article in the Sunday Times about this over the weekend. Apparently record companies are keeping digital download prices high to try and protect CD sales. They are making up to 65% more profit on downloads

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2220475.html

Kristok

I cant understand people using this site. If you want to pay for music then pay the people who own it by using itunes etc, if you want to just download music and not pay for it then do that. This inbetween option of allofmp3 were your paying someone but they may or may not have the right ot sell it is a joke. Your either a warez monkey or not, just cause you pay this russian site 1.50 for an album dosnt mean your doing the right thing. Your still a warez monkey just not one using p2p. In russia these people may have the right to sell this to russians but not to anyone else so you may as well be on the bay or pirates as someone mentioned earlier cause you have just as much right to download from there as you do from allofmp3 but it will cost you nothing. At the end of the day if you want to pay the copyright holders then goto itunes etc and pay them for their music otherwise dont be wasting money on this site cause all your doing is fooling yourself cause even if they are legal its only in russia.

cgarvey

I think some are beyond caring at whether the artist gets the money anymore. Effectively, the record industry have priced themselves out of their market. Much like superpubs!

I don't doubt that you're right (but IANAL, and I'm only presuming that it's illegal here), but warez monkey is not a label some people will have a problem with (when it comes to music downloads).

iTunes comes close (both in usability and price), but it still hasn't got the cigar.

blastman

ElNino wrote:

There was an article in the Sunday Times about this over the weekend. Apparently record companies are keeping digital download prices high to try and protect CD sales. They are making up to 65% more profit on downloads

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,20411-2220475.html

You'd feel sorry for the record companies, wouldn't you? Struggling to make ends meet, the lot of them....

keithclancy

cgarvey wrote:

No media is perfect, but BBC is one of the better / more objective ones, IMO.

The guy wasn't a taxi driver BTW, and nor was he there to talk about music downloads. That clip was very funny though.

Back on topic, I think the greyness of AllOfMP3 is that there's little doubt that it is legal in Russia, it's the law of your own country that's the problem.

The guy that was supposed to go on wrote it on his bloody blog and kept referring to him as "The black guy" and he was White ... He was mean to talk abouut the online music business, He's an idiot also, racist too.

Lawdie

Kristok wrote:

I cant understand people using this site.

Its simple, excellent format and accessability with great speed.

Kristok wrote:

If you want to pay for music then pay the people who own it by using itunes etc

I will pay them WHEN they price their music in the exact same bracket. $1.50 for an album is fair enough to pay. So get on to them not us.

Kristok wrote:

At the end of the day if you want to pay the copyright holders then goto itunes etc and pay them for their music otherwise dont be wasting money on this site cause all your doing is fooling yourself cause even if they are legal its only in russia.

Get a grip. Your missing the entire point. People will buy more tracks more often. This is pretty simple economics, where the sellers are maintaining high prices for no reason and selling less product. So drop the price we will all use iTunes or whatever option and still fill the music industry coffers. I think you can't see you/we/I are the ones ripped off with current prices. God Eddie Hobbs would love this rant!