Erne$to OTOH is mostly quite happy to just print whatever ‘scare story’ handout is sent in by the various MAFIAA agitprop departments, without the slightest effort to check facts or offer intelligent deconstruction.

That is why it is so important to use Ad-Block when visiting here, as it would be silly to reward him for the slovenly work we have to then correct for ourselves in the comment section.

Cheers!

In that case, wouldn’t all corrupt officials convicted in Court be sentenced to life in prision without the possibility of parole?

Or does this reflect how cheap a human life is in Russia?

I live in Russia and use Vkontakte every single day. So as a user I can state that there is NO way to download a song there OFICIALLY. You can upload as many as you like, share them with a friends, post on your wall, send as attachments with VKontakte messages, but you can’t download them.

Along came third-party applications that change user interface of the site implementing song download buttons. So thing is – they are not officially approved by VK administrations, but there is no way to monitor their usage. Even without these apps, there are sites that are parsing VK music library through dummy accounts and let users download the songs (google ‘vkmuzon’).

NB1: VKontakte has the BIGGEST music library on the Internet. You can check yourself through “vkmuzon” – type ANYTHING, any rare band or limited edition track – you’ll find it. I tried Spotify, it lacks a great deal of music.

NB2: Vkontakte is the pain in the ass for all the russian copyright protection agencies. Beside music, it has videohosting, featuring TV Show’s full episodes (all of them, from oldies like M.A.S.H. or Friends to the newest like Walking Dead and Episodes) and films (up to 720p HD resolutions). And here’s the kicker – they are all absolutely free of charge. You just open your browser – enter the site – type something like “The Social Network HD” and here we go – no need to go buy or rent DVD.

NB3: At least four times some agency tried to sue the hell out of the site. But nothing worked yet. So VK stated the manifesto about users being responsible of all the content operations. They say “We only provide the service, users do things, so suing us is like suing Colt company for everyone ever shot.”

NB4: You have to know one thing – VK is SO massive in Russia that almost no one uses Facebook here.

NB5: They guy in the story hasn’t yet stood in front of trial. Thing is – they have nothing on him. 200,000 downloads? How did you count them, esp. when there is no [official] download procedure? Did he even do it? Anyone could create the page with his name and his photo and upload any music, right? There is no legal bound between the man and his social network page. Uploaded 18 songs? So what? I uploaded 72 and no one knocks my door out. So this guy is not yet shower-raped in prison, and possibility is – he’ll never get there at all.