Contentious AllOfMP3.com set for re-launch?

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By Stevie Smith Aug 29, 2007, 14:12 GMT

Following on from news concerning the recent copyright infringement acquittal of Denis Kvasov, the head of MediaServices and the man behind the controversial AllOfMP3.com music download portal, it would now appear that the much publicised site – offline since early July – is about the be re-launched.By way of recap, prior to its abrupt closure, Kvasov’s AllOfMP3.com was supposedly the world’s second largest music download service after Apple’s iTunes Store, with the Russian site believed to be so well placed due to it practice of massively undercutting similar market rivals, reports the BBC. Naturally, the music industry’s heavyweight players duly fought for the closure of AllOfMP3.com on the grounds that it did not contribute towards the royalties of signed artists and therefore was committing copyright infringement. This was denied by MediaServices, which stated that it paid 15 percent of its profits to the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (Roms) fully in accordance with Russian law. "We pay royalties to those who sign up with us and ask for them. But none of the majors, among them I mean labels like EMI and Universal, want their money," Oleg Nezus of Roms told the Reuters news agency. "I've been sending them letters since November of 2005, stating there's a dividend. The labels don't respond."Russian authorities duly sided with the music giants and closed the site, a move thought to be a convenient attempt to curry favour concerning the country’s drive to gain entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).Since the closure of AllOfMP3.com, MediaServices has opened a new cut-price download portal called MP3Sparks.com and seen its owner cleared of copyright infringement charges by District Judge Yekaterina Sharapova based on what she referred to as a lack of "persuasive evidence."Now a statement on AllOfMP3.com clearly outlines that the site could soon be reopened for business, with it proclaiming that: "The service will be resumed in the foreseeable future. We are doing our best at the moment to ensure that all our users can use their accounts, top up balance and order music."Despite the indication that AllOfMP3.com will soon be standing shoulder to shoulder with MP3Sparks.com, Tim Smith of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFFI), has warned that any re-instigated business practice would be "in clear violation of copyright laws" found within and outside of Russia through the selling of copyrighted musical content without the legal right to do so. The IFFI is currently suing the contentious download service in both Britain and the United States to which Smith added that Kvasov’s recent acquittal "has no impact whatsoever on the legality of AllOfMP3 itself."

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JoeAug 29th, 2007 - 16:00:38

honestly any competent person knows you can pirate just about anything on the internet these days, whats closing one site down going to change anything? I have never encountered a situation in my past 10 years where I was not able to acquire a piece of software, music, or movie for free, be it cracked or pirated, worth $5000 or $5. Heck everyone I know could at least download entire albums for free.

adapt or perish, I guess the music industry is on its way to the latter.

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AJPAug 30th, 2007 - 13:00:07

Why not follow the same model that the Russian companies have implemented?

I for one refuse to pay $1 for a song. I just wont. However if you sell them at 0.12 - 0.15 i will buy them by the boat load. I know this is also the opinion of many of my acquaintances. If you want to sell LOTS of music in this decade make it cheap, make it DRM free. I dont want to hassle with where i can move, copy or play the file.

Would you rather sell 10 songs at a dollar a pop, or sell 100 @ 0.12 to 0.15 a pop?

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