RIAA Declares Victory Over AllofMP3, Drops Lawsuit
Written by enigmax on May 26, 2008The RIAA has declared victory over Russian music download store AllofMP3, which it accused of the illegal distribution of millions of copyright tracks. The site, which was declared legal by a court last October, no longer offers music – but has spawned dozens of fully operational spin-offs. Victory for RIAA? Not quite.
When pressure from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the United States government caused the Kremlin to take down AllofMP3 in mid 2007, the RIAA must’ve been jumping for joy.
Before the shutdown, AllOfMP3 had around 6 million users who were able to download songs and albums for a tiny fraction of the price of authorized alternatives such as iTunes. The RIAA said it could not live with this situation.
In December 2006, the RIAA filed a complaint against the site, stating that AllofMP3 sold millions of tracks to the public yet gave no money back to their artists.
According to a report, on May 20th 2008 the RIAA filed papers in federal court, Manhattan, dropping its copyright infringement lawsuit against AllofMP3.
“The site is now defunct and out of business, the result of a successful anti-piracy initiative,” Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman told Bloomberg.
Notably, Lamy did not mention a fully operational site set up by the same people as AllofMP3, called Mp3Sparks. Different name, same tunes, no lawsuit.
AllofMP3 was blocked by a Swedish ISP back in 2006 when it got caught up in the anti-AllofMP3 hysteria but later retracted its stance.
In August 2007, AllofMP3 was acquitted in Russia of all charges that had been put forward by IFPI and on October 24th 2007, a district court in Moscow confirmed the innocent verdict.
“They [RIAA] never correctly commenced the proceeding in the first place,” said John Crossman, who represented the site’s owner, MediaServices LLC.
“Maybe it was a rare triumph of good sense.”
In the meantime, dozens of similar sites operate in Russia, delivering super-cheap music to the masses in much the same way as AllofMP3 did.
Victory for the RIAA? Not quite.
Previously: BitTorrent Tracker Insider Infiltrates Anti-Piracy Lobby
Next: Mininova, 5 Billion Downloads and Counting
50 Responses
Kiss it, RIAA…
the anti-piracy gangs FAIL!
you can NEVER win over the pirates!
looks like riaa’s strategy is to ovoerrun people in court with high fees, wonder how much money they have since there are over 50 million people downloading illegaly.
christ, we should let the world hear our voices.
they shouldn’t be charging for the music anyway.
i dunno man. in my eyes pay-for-mp3 sites are just wrong…
it’s the hydra at work, baby
Oh no, somebody is selling my musakz for less $ than me, now I can’t fill my fatcat pockets with money made on the overpriced music sold by the major labels :-(
Better that they waste their time and money on these kinds of websites than torrent trackers.
yeas to donate and help site, no to pay for mp3
Well,
Don’t understand…. why do you have to pay if monney is not going to anybody? It’s pure robbery. Let’s get those mp3 for free et buy some show tickets instead.
This made me go LOL, when I tried to access Mp3Sparks I got an error message from ESET Nod32 Antivirus:
“The web page is on the list of websites with potentially dangerous content.”
First time it happens.
If I remenber it right, AllofMP3 did pay copyright fees to Russian copyright organisation but RIAA forgot to collect them.
Those sites are disgusting, charging for music and keeping all the profit. At least the RIAA remembers to pay SOME artists.
allofmp3 was operating under a flaw of russian law, which was considering the site as a radio.
Therefore they could sell the mp3s for nearly nothing, since all they had to pay was a fee like any radio broadcaster.
So the site was completely and perfectly legal in all extents, but then came some “blackmailing” campaign with the WTO as bully.
Another proof the RIAA are just a gang of mafia-style fuckups.
The last words made me laugh out loud..
AllofMP3 was operating legally in Russia do to there was no laws on paying money from sales to the foreign artists, only to local artists, but now there are new tons of anti-piracy laws
“In December 2006, the RIAA filed a complaint against the site, stating that AllofMP3 sold millions of tracks to the public yet gave no money back to their artists.”
definition of irony !
Just picture this:
Hitler to Churchill:
“I got bored with this war nonsense (I’m loosing anyway).
Therefore i declare myself victor, now fuck off.
I won. Got it ?”
Pffft,
loosers.
They take one down, 20 more appear haha
‘20 more appear hahahaha’
why would you want 20 more to appear. They offered albums which are gneerally manufactured chart rubbish for a fee. When you could easily go to a website and download it free somewhere else. Or if you want to pay, pay it to the artist who created it.
allofmp3 just made all pirates look like a bunch of douchebags
I wonder how much money allofmp3 dudes made from that or did it all go to server maintance
I mean It’s the same if you buy a track from there or download it from the interweb.. in either of cases Label nor Artist don’t get any money from it.
Now I wonder what are people’s motives to use such service.
Is it same to buy a track from there as it is to download from some free p2p service and afterwards donate money for operating costs.
Anyways I hope just people buy tickets to shows and are also willing to pay more because cost of live act is going up as the gas prices are scoaring everywhere.
FUCK CORPORATE MUTHAFUCKAS.
A BUNCH OF ASSHOLES CONTROL THE WAY MOST OF US LIVE OUR LIVES. IT’S PATHETIC.
P.S. SORRY ABOUT CAPS, BUT I LOVE WRITING IN CAPS !
AllofMP3 is equal to some Chinese corner man selling pirated music and movies. The artists and studios get nothing. Anyone in the scene (or from BitTorrent sites for that matter) despise people who get content for free and then turn around and sell it. So how is this OK? These Russian bastards are probably downloading this stuff from the same places you or I get it. Even if they do initially buy the CDs I fail to see how this has anything to do with what TorrentFreak stands for. Share? Absolutely! Resell? Fuck no! Lowlifes!
@5
Well, there is a simple solution to that, isn’t there? allofmp3 and all such pay-sites should just give the money they earn to the artists as a royalty. That is all.
What the RIAA should do is to demand a royalty from the money that they earn. I mean, the simple solution to piracy is just to give the money they earn to the artists. If they do not earn any money, then there would be not any given, of course, but the people should decide what they price they are going to set it at, whether for a charge, or for free.
Good. This is what RIAA should spend their time on. Real pirates.
From what I read on the internet, it seemed like the main reason why allofmp3 was so popular was that people didn’t actually know that the artists didn’t get any of the money.
some people dont seem to understand the problem with all ofmp3. Allofmp3 exploited a loophole in russian law which emant they could legally operate as they were as they were classified as a radio station. They were legal in russia, but anywhere else they were not.
They sold the music and didnt pay any royalties at all, they made money from the site, they were a company. People bought off them because they thought if they were paying then it must be legit and they wont get caught(you know like every torrent user does…ahem).
Actually thats giving too much credit to the douchebags that supported this site, they were most probably limewire users.
allofmp3 was worse than any pirate site. It’s one thing to “share” music for free. It’s another thing to sell it and not actually pay anything to the artist. That’s the RIAA’s job.
@27
I still think that it would be more senseful to demand a royalty rather than to shut the site down.
Anti-piracy groups trying to shut down pirate sites is like anti-virus companies trying to update their software faster then the hackers can create new viruses. The opposing side will always win, because once one is gone even more will pop up to replace it.
Have fun wasting more time RIAA, because it seems to me that you have a LOT of work infront of you.
That truly shows once again what’s the only thing, the big companies CAN do with the sites:
Shut them down, just so they get up with even more traffic… (TPB)
Shut them down to make a lot of (sometimes good) new sites appear… (Pizzatorrents and others)
Well, I doubt that these results take them farther to their goals, only farther away…
It’s like they did with Napster: Kill the big sites to spread the users, which will get even harder to catch, as well as the new site owners, just due to their sheer amount…
Even though allofmp3 are clearly doing something wrong by not paying a proper royalty for their earnings, RIAA is still the one that deserves to be firebombed more.
I think my buddy zarathustra said it best in comment #1.
As for 7, 12, & the rest that are ragging on the fact that AllOfMP3 charged (@10 cents or less), the RIAA is lying. The money was paid as a mechanical royalty to the Russian agency that collects them and then distributes the proceeds to the rights holders. The same way radio stations and juke box operators pay in the West. They were in full compliance with the (then-current) law and the not guilty verdict proves that. The fact that the royalty schedule they paid under was not to RIAA’s liking is just tough sh*t. Of course they didn’t like it. Their idea of a business model is selling tracks at 99 cents apiece which on a 15-16 track album comes to…..the shaft for consumers. Screw them and the horse they rode in on.
As zarathustra said, kiss it RIAA.
Kiss it long, kiss it hard. And a hearty middle finger salute to ya!
@32
Ah, all the more reason to firebomb the RIAA. A nonviolent resistance will not succeed. Only a violent one can succeed. Surely the people of the RIAA do not deserve life?
Down with the RIAA, they must fall violently.
I’m sad to see allofmp3 go, even if its been replaced ten fold.
This is just another example of American lobbyists being able to dictagte laws, rulings, arrests etc. without having to actually go though legal processes or adhering to any rules or regulations.
If the RIAA doesn’t like it, even the kremlin doesn’t care whether there’s actually any legal or moral problem: the will of the RIAA is enough to make it reality.
Why bother suing a BT hosting company when you can just announce you don’t like them and let the politics do the rest. WTO promoting what (besides corporate america) exactly?
“Anti-piracy groups trying to shut down pirate sites is like anti-virus companies trying to update their software faster then the hackers can create new viruses. The opposing side will always win, because once one is gone even more will pop up to replace it.”
That’s a canny analogy – M$ is designed to be irresolvably insecure so endless AV apps must be bought to try and fix it; and western politics is designed so that whoever’s richest get the veto vote on every aspect of governing! Both systems are inherently designed to yield the result that they do. Designed by mad rich capitalists, for mad rich capitalists.
“The site is now defunct and out of business, the result of a successful anti-piracy initiative,” Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman told Bloomberg.
“Initiative” is incorrect. It was their bribery which eventually prompted the Russian govt to act. It was a Russian decision only made under co-ercion. Personally I would’ve continued to say “stuff you”, but I think the RIAA was also seeking other trade sanctions which would have harmed the Russian economy.
Fortunately the RIAA was unable to get the bomb dropped however. Scum of the Earth they are.
I believe allofmp3 was offering it free at the start, but soon realized there was big dough to be made, since they found a loophole.
I have no reason to doubt it’s legality though. The RIAA of course didn’t want to be undercut by a competitor.
I don’t like such sites. They’re similar to mafia organizations like the RIAA imo :/
They should either share for free or give the money to the artists. Else there is no much difference to buying from the RIAA labels.
Requesting donations is ok, but charging isn’t. Also I doubt they offer proper quality, thus I wouldn’t even call it cheap.
well aside from the way the artists got no money, I think allofmp3 was a good site. Perhaps if it was legal and gave 15% to the artists then illegal downloading would fall. I’d be willing to pay $1 for an album but not much more.
For the meantime these sites are a useful index of artists and music when you’re looking for new stuff…
The thing is in Russia there is a compulsory licence (the same that include radio) for any music distributed by non physical means. allofmp3 pay that license but RIAA do not reconice it so the Russia collection agency keep it in a scroll (Get to keep the interest so the agency love it). So AllofMp3 pay for the music what it have the obligation to pay under Russian law. it wasn’t a problem while that law operated only in Russia, with the internet IFPI is in the same problem that the sales taxes with purchases for mail orders from out of state in the USA and is try the same that recently tried NY with the Amazon tax.
Do you guys realize that Allofmp3 still lives? They just changed their name to MP3Sparks.
I don’t know if this has anything to do with dropping the lawsuit, but MP3Sparks is accpeting payments again as of yesterday
Check http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3payments.htm
fuck allofmp3, i hope they get sued for every penny they stole from the artists.
Music is free or sold by the RIAA, we dont need little fuck face criminals in between.
You didnt make it, you didnt produce it, you dont get to sell it.
@51
Are you just a f*cking retard? Why don’t you learn to read before spouting off with your ignorance. They didn’t steal a dime from artists you idiot. They charged because they paid the royalty fees required under Russian law at the time. If the RIAA refuses to accept the money because they want complete control over pricing that’s their problem. AllOfMP3 was completely within the law and paid the artist royalties they were required to.
Now please go STFU while the educated and mature have a discussion.
Looks like the RIAA was borrowing a
page out of Commander Bunnypants’
playbook:
“Mission Accomplished”
NOT
@51. Just because something is not illegaly, does not make it right. Please think for yourself, fashist.
Besides, artists don’t get any money. Read more at wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllOfMP3
Sorry, I ment to address @52 “Douchenozzles On Parade”, not @51.
MY government put pressure on Russia? The United States? What bullshit! Land of the free, my ass. Land of the fucking FREE MARKET.
It sucks living in a country that cares more about its companies than its citizens. Every day I get closer to catching a boat (no planes – they’d lose my luggage and delay 500 hours) to Europe and moving to Sweden or Russia or Germany or somewhere else halfway decent.
…then there’d finally be a use for my speaking Swedish, German, Russian, or Spanish…
riaa bitching about not giving money back to the artists, yet the do the exact same thing….hmmm
fuck riaa
Screw RIAA. Download Lime Wire now and get all the free music and software you want. Piss on the artists and their billion dollar tastes!
JJ
http://www.fireme.to/udi
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