“Russian music site of questionable legality AllOfMP3 may well be close to breathing its last. Credit card companies Visa and Mastercard have stopped accepting credit card transactions for the site,” Mark Mulligan blogs for JupiterResearch.
“AllOfMP3 have persistently sailed as close the wind as is humanly possible and claim legality through some creative interpretation of Russian copyright laws that the music industry refutes,” Mulligan writes.
“Without going into too much detail, the dispute centres around the authority of the new media license granting body in Russia to grant license on behalf of record labels and also around the much smaller license fees paid compared with standard licenses. Though AllOfMP3 claim to be catering for a Russian audience, they have clearly got their sights set on a wider audience and indeed usage is driven from Western Europe and beyond,” Mulligan writes.
Full article here.
Here in St Petersburg Visa it is still trading as of an hour ago. It must be that they closed it for the US market.
You poor suckers are being bullied by your own laws
MW: Added, As in iTMS added another musicstore on the dead list.
AllOfMP3 ‘close to breathing its last’ as Visa and Mastercard stop accepting transactions
Hahahahahaha!!
Say that again, please. I haven’t had a good laugh all week.
AllOfMP3 ‘close to breathing its last’ as Visa and Mastercard stop accepting transactions
Hahahahaha! Oh good, thanks…
*crying*
Interesting interpretation, zerO. I think that the truth is that you and others that think that it’s OK to purchase from a company that clearly does not have the rights to sell (i.e. pirating) because you find it convenient. Therefore, you are rationalizing in your own mind that it is legal and OK. In reality, you are buying illegal bootlegged merchandise. It doesn’t make it any less legal because you are paying someone for it. That “someone” doesn’t have the rights to the music in the first place. That’s like me selling you the Brooklyn Bridge.
My comment should have said “It doesn’t make it any less illegal because you are paying someone for it.”
Remember, currently the only method for stripping off the Fairplay DRM is to burn to a audio cd and rip back into Mp3.
BlueRay DVD burners can’t burn audio cd’s.
Just imagine those becoming standard in consumer Mac’s.
Oh yea.
Jimbo, since when are you an expert (let alone even remotely well versed) in Russian Information Property Law? The entity who “has the right to sell” is declared solely at the discretion of the jurisdiction within which the transaction takes place.
Wrong, Cog.
Even if the Russian government (or any other government) authorizes theft, it’s still theft. Taking someone else’s property without their permission is theft, regardless of what anyone else says. The Russian government is starting to resemble nothing but organized crime. Perhaps when the Russian government becomes brazen enough to steal directly from the Russian people in broad daylight they will wake up to it, but by then it will be too late for them to do anything about it. Too bad. Ultimately, however, democracy depends on a people who love their freedom more than the acquisition of wealth or national “power.”
Cog you ignorant slut!
Learn the difference between what a former-communist-dictatorial-dinosaur of a country deems appropriate versus what the rest of the civilized world says. Russia will have to come onboard with standard international copyright treaties or else they will be left behind in the market place. Same thing will happen to China. Eventually.
Russia, China . . . what’s the difference? Thieves wrapped in flags, that’s all. If the WTO had any cajones at all, it would slap both of them with hefty sanctions, but that ain’t gonna’ happen, now is it?
Russia and its former dictatorship… The “USSR” tried to dictate to its people. We all which nation and its 260 million people now tries to dictate to the rest of the world, don’t we?
And in the Music industry, who tries to dictate its agenda?
Using “communism” as part and parcel in ultimate evil or as a buzzword does little, I’m afraid.
Capitalism is really no better, it’s just different people who get screwed in different ways… there is NO perfect government structure yet.
If Russia and China had ANYTHING to offer the world musically I might respect them a teeny-tiny bit. But since neither country has even an ounce of performing talent by Western standards, they have to STEAL it!
Here’s an idea, Comrades: Develop your OWN Madonna, your OWN 50 Cent, your OWN Rod Stewart, and then sell THEIR music for pennies, OK?
Thieving SOB’s!
I was looking for a song once and came across allofmp3. I was even going to buy it, until I realized what they were doing.
I’d rather pay the Russian’s for stolen merchandise than the record companies or the RIAA for the same stolen merchandise.
The U.S. has taken the concept of intellectual copyright to some dark places.
Pull your head out of your ass, gorufo! I’m sure there’s plenty of room, but de view is probably pretty bad.
If any of these AllofMP3 bitches bootleg my top-selling CD, Come Poop With Me, I’m going to sic my lawyers on them faster than Jacko invites kids to “ride de Magic Mountain” at Neverland Ranch.
Hey listen, I love humping as much as de next red-blooded American canine, but getting humped by scumbags is no picnic. And thievery makes my ballsack itch.
Jimbo thinks he’s full of knowledge, but he isn’t… Just look at all of the fancy words he tries to spit out in his post a few days ago about consumer reports.
Randian,
Look at the band Tatu. THey are russian and off of the hook. DOn’t be so ignorant.
I’d rather pay the Russian’s for stolen merchandise than the record companies or the RIAA for the same stolen merchandise.
Wow. That’s gotta be a candidate for Most Retarded Rationalization of the Year. So you have no problem with the concept of buying stolen property, as long as you like the fence.
Paying money to thieves can’t be justified. If you have no problem with piracy, grow a pair and do it yourself. I hear Limewire is full of good stuff.
Sorry, but I’m with AllofMP3 on this. I know they weren’t legal in the US, but THEY are the way digital music should be distributed. Choose my codec, choose my bitrate, and then download UPROTECTED mp3 files. It was a great site. DRM only punishes the honest person, not the pirate.
I just don’t see why ANYONE could justify following the RIAA in any way. Don’t give me the legality argument, is their bullying even remotely moral in any way? They’re scumbags and I won’t give them another dime unless I absolutely have to, or until they stop treating their customers like crap and let us have a DRM free product at a fair price.
You can call it illegal, yes you’re right. But I look at it as civil disobedience. I’m tired of marching like a sheep to corporations and the corporation led government. Be a sheep or fight back in any way you can, you decide if you want to be their lapdog.
Jimbo, Chubbawubba:
Actually, here you have demonstrated the major reason Americans are the butt of international jokes. Sovereignty is a very simple legal concept – the only laws that matter are the ones that apply in a given jurisdiction. Russia is not an American jurisdiction, so no matter what you say the “rest of the world” thinks, it is absolutely meaningless within Russia.
Of course, you’ve already discredited the independent and sovereign nation-state of Russia, explicitly dismissing their right to create and enforce laws different to those you personally accept. Thus, it is clear, you are completely uneducated and clearly not worth listening to in matters related or otherwise to law, intellectual property, monster trucks, navel lint, nipples…
For the record, the rest of the world doesn’t agree with US intellectual property law. In fact, we make a point of *not* extending copyright whenever Mickey Mouse is about to enter the public domain.
i hate it when people download illegally
So what? ALLOFMP3 will simply change the name with which they charge customers, or will use a third party like PayPal or some European equalevant.
intheshelter:
“I won’t give them another dime unless I absolutely have to, or until they stop treating their customers like crap and let us have a DRM free product at a fair price.”
– Well, they do let you have DRM free products by way of selling CDs and allowing you to burn and rip an iTMS purchase. It’s not necessarily the easiest method, but the option is still there which makes your argument rather pointless.
“I just don’t see why ANYONE could justify following the RIAA in any way.”
– At least the RIAA gives some money to the artists according to the contracts that the artists have agreed to. Keep in mind that you are punishing the artists in addition to the record labels. So how do you justify stealing from the artists?
“I’m tired of marching like a sheep to corporations and the corporation led government. Be a sheep or fight back in any way you can, you decide if you want to be their lapdog.”
– Yes, fight back at the artist’s expense. How truly noble of you. Don’t try to act like you’re rebelling for any noble cause other than that you are too lazy and too cheap to purchase the music yourself.
Oh please Realist, feel free to spare me the RIAA crap about “the artist”. You tool, the RIAA doesn’t give a crap about the artist. They are something to exploit, a cow to milk, and then the RIAA keeps as much money as they possibly can. Did you know they give their precious artist even less money for a digital download than they do a purchased CD?
If you honestly believe the RIAA cares about the artists then this is a pointless discussion with you.
As for buying CDs without DRM, have you heard of the fiascos by Sony and others as they’ve attempted to lock down their CDs too? I’m talking digital downloads, not CDs, and I’m avoiding buying anything with DRM sewn into it. If you want them to dictate what you do with YOUR music (yes, i know it’s technicially not yours, it’s just a license to play it) then let them lead you around by the nose. I’m sick of their shitty treatment and I’m not giving them your money any more.
I don’t mind paying for music, but I want it to be fairly priced and DRM free. If they can’t quit treating me as a customer like crap then no, I won’t pay them. Luckily I don’t buy any music anymore anyway. I’ve barely heard anything in 10 years worth buying.
You go ahead and swallow their “save the starving artist” campaign. It’s propaganda just like the “war on terror”. Pull your head out Mr. Noble!
Pity. I hate the RIAA scumbag gangsters. Anything they’re against, I will support.
Fuck The RIAA!!!
The enemy of my enemy is my friend…