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AllofMP3 Voucher Resellers Quit After Police Raid
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed May 23, 2007 10:07 AM
from the squash-enough-bugs-and-the-hive-dies dept.
from the squash-enough-bugs-and-the-hive-dies dept.
Broohaha writes "Europeans who resell AllofMP3.com vouchers are quitting the business after a UK raid against one prominent reseller there. An Ars Technica article talks to several of them about their situations. 'Until a few days ago, I had never heard of the IFPI [the international music trade group],' said one reseller. 'But yes, I am concerned about them now. Although my attorney assures me that reselling gift certificates bought from AllOfMP3.com isn't breaking any laws, it isn't worth the possibility of engagement with their legal machine.' The music industry seems determined to choke off AllofMP3's funding, no matter how small the source."
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Your Rights Online: Allofmp3 Shut Down, Again 291 comments
studguy1 writes to tell us TorrentFreak is reporting that the Russian government has shut down Allofmp3, the popular online music site. "AllOfMP3 has been a thorn in the side of the RIAA and the US government for years. Last year, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that if Russia wants to join the WTO, they should shut down the pirate music website that is robbing US recording companies of sales."
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The RIAA wins then... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The RIAA wins then... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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"I didn't say Allofmp3 was legal; in fact, I warned people I recommended the site to that they operated in a gray area. However, they were still willing to pay for songs that had a guaranteed quality, were easy to find and worked on their devices. Now that they can't use Allofmp3 anymore, they prefer to pirate songs - they are more difficult to find, don't have a guaranteed quality, but work on their devices."
If your friends are willing to pay for pirated content, sounds like a good opportunity for you
Re:Shhhh (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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"parent is modded funny, but its an informative sort of statement.. do some research and find out how much, exactly, artists are compensated for cd sales by the riaa.. i think you'll find several conflicting points of data, all well below a "reasonable" amount. (think fractions of a percent)"
I've talked to people who've done quite well on sales through iTunes -- the $0.15 per track estimate is about right, in the instances I've confirmed. It's actually much higher than that for many indie artists (whose
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AllOfMP3 was piracy, you were just paying for it. Just because it dressed itself up in a professional website and pretended to be something else doesn't change that.
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It's my understanding that AllOfMP3 is legally operating within Russia, that the various music associations have tried to get it shut down within Russia but have been unable to because it has been following the law, as it is written in Russia. It may or may not violate copyright and/or other laws for an individual to download from their site
actionable? (Score:5, Interesting)
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They already have in the country of Eurasia.
Seriously, the world today is almost like the wild west where there really isn't any law except for those that think there is law and that they are in charge. IFPI. Who are those guys?
See the comment in the summary? (Score:2)
I would love to see how the astroturfers here spin this, go on.
At this point doing things the RIAA doesn't like is basically necessary civil disobedience.
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Civil disobedience! (Score:2)
Yes, because the right to share somebody else's creations with friends and strangers is unalienable.
Saharov [wikipedia.org] and Ghandi [wikipedia.org] would've been proud of your stand.
my attorney in the UK ? (Score:5, Insightful)
since when has anybody in the UK called a solicitor or lawyer/barrister an "attorney"
that word is used almost exclusivly by Americans, was this reseller an American in the UK or was the "quote" edited for a US audience
smells like bullshit here in London
Re:my attorney in the UK ? (Score:4, Insightful)
The whole story seems like astroturfing designed to scare the bejesus out of the remaining resellers.
Parent
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Whatever works. They don't care. It is clearly up the us to be more careful how we spend our money. To keep it our of their hands, don't buy their product. Lot's of talk about boycotts and stuff, but a closely related industry is making more money than they ever have (plugging journal). So I would see no reason why they should change their behavior. It still pays off quite well. Just like with spammers. It i
In the US... (Score:3)
we call them leeches, parasites,...
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There are a goodly many English Teachers who teach American English, thus anyone who has learned to speak/write English after learning in that environment will refer to a legal representative as an Attorney, rather than a Solicitor.
So, no, doesn't smell like Bullshit here in Bath/Bristol.
Legal system problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Legal system problem (Score:4, Insightful)
Almost there.
Which makes justice impossible. for those who aren't wealthy .
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Redundant)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Try using more words next time, and as a bonus feel free to make some of them your own!
sigh (Score:5, Interesting)
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"Is it me or is the whole DRM, RIAA, ect getting out of hand realy fast, there attacking people in other contries."
Huh? This article was about the IFPI; they're an international trade group operating in a whole bunch of countries.
If this were about the RIAA (a US organization) causing a ruckus in the UK, then you're right -- it would be a little weird.
"The music industry seems determined to choke off" (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:"The music industry seems determined to choke o (Score:2)
To me, "The music industry" seems to have become the bane of civil and modern life. As if there exist no problems in the world, no wars, no poverty, no economic issues but fucking more-cash problems of the "music industry". makes one start to treat individuals involved in this "music industry" like lowlifes in everyday life.
- emphasis mine
"Makes one start to treat individuals involved in this 'music industry' like the lowlifes that they really are."
There, that sounds better
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Re:"The music industry seems determined to choke o (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
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As far as I can tell, if you don't download music you don't own or aren't getting from a highly questionable source then you won't have any problems. Maybe I missed it but has there be
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hmmm.
like having innovation, free speech and competitio not being stifled by insane laws that are passed through music industry funding ?
like, "intellectual property" exploitation that walks in the verge of banning people from using certain words in daily speech ?
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Really? Musicians, and the people they pay/hire/work with to handle the business end of what they do (so they can concentrate on making music) are the 'bane of civil and modern life?' But some company that wants to rip those musicians off by not paying for their work, and then turn around and sell what they've ripped off... you consider that to be... what? a good example of civility? If civilization is marked by its abilit
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There is an enormous difference. Follow a few successful artists' business careers. They work (in starving artist mode), and some of them produce something with enough critical and commercial draw that they make some real money. MANY of them form their own production and publishing companies specifically so that they can help out or promote other "starving" artists with contracts that are favorable to the artists. And guess what: many of those company-forming artists immediately se
The Fraud Act 2006 Requires Intent (Score:2)
Ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
One can certainly argue against the moral rightness of the way the Russian copyright licensing laws work, since no American artist will ever see any of the fees that the Russian copyright organization collects. But certainly the RIAA is clearly acting morally wrong as well.
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And you think that is somehow ironic? How ironic.
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Re:Ironic (Score:4, Insightful)
"Actually, any artist can collect fees from Russian music collecting agency. And Russian collecting agency is also a non-profit organization."
Okay, pretend you're a moderately successful artist. You sold 1,000 copies of your album on iTunes last month for which you netted about $1K. You suspect that allofmp3 also sold about 1,000 copies of your album last month (you have no way of knowing... artists have asked allofmp3 to release sales data, but they refuse). They sold them for $0.60 each, to which the collecting society perhaps got about $0.06, of which you might see $0.04. So, somewhere out there, somebody has $40.00 for you.
After finding ROMS' site and the English version thereof, you get to this page [www.roms.ru] before you hit a wall. If says that if you had "concluded an agreement" with ROMS (which you most likely have not), you are entitled to compensation, but ROMS does not tell you how you can go about this. You might note that by comparison, the corresponding page on ASCAP [ascap.com] is much more useful. This is because ASCAP is run by and for artists, and is looking out for your best interests. Unlike ROMS, they're not a front for a pirate site.
At what point do you give up, and admit that the Russians effectively get to keep your $40?
Parent
Re:Ironic (Score:4, Informative)
I can read Russian, so I've read their contract: http://www.roms.ru/download/authors/1.doc [www.roms.ru] It says that you can collect fees retroactively.
A typical CD costs about $5 in Russia (including licensed CDs from Western artists). Generally, CD contains about 10 songs, so it's 50 cents per song (notice, it's less expensive than AoMP3). One usually gets less than 10% from actual CD price, so artists in Russia can get more from ROMS than from actual CD sales.
Parent
Russian Law (Score:3, Insightful)
If AllOfMP3.com doesn't survive long enough to be tested in Russian court (and subsequently in Russian police offices), we might never know whether another bizmodel or just other outside-Russian operations could survive to be tweaked into a way that survives.
whoops (Score:2)
www.mp3sugar.com (Score:2)
Only downer with this is that all music is 256kbps
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You say it as if it was a fact. It would appear the law thinks there's a good chance they were.
If I sold vouchers redeemable at your local fence, would I be doing anything illegal? It's not a distinction I'd like to argue in court, which is what all those resellers have concluded.
If the music industry doesn't respect the law, then why should the 'pirates'?
Well if you're going to use that level of argument, I think a "They started it first!" answers any further questio
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Good. You should think about using some. The social contract that you have implicitly entered into by being a citizen of said state forbids such activity to its citizens, and allows it, under a certain set of circumstances, to certain state employees. Now, as long as the state upholds its end of the deal, the citizens should uphold theirs.
In the matter of copyright law, we have a similar contract. However, the music industry has cleverly bankrolled legislation to make sure they
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The US Supreme Court, ruling on the legality of the Bono copyright extension of a few years ago, very clearly stated that while their ruling should not in any way be interpreted to mean that copyright extension was a good idea, that "life of the author plus 70 years" (or is it 75 years?) did indeed
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You know, that's great. It must be nice to be the one party able to re-negotiate the terms of a contract. Does it work for banks? If you get a loan to purchase a home, and it comes time for your last payment, can the bank run to Congress or the courts and demand that you should continue your monthly payments for another 20 years? Name anothe
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