Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:21 pm

Allofmp3.com took advantage of Russia's compulsory licensing laws, and was able to offer a far better store (greater selection, wider array of formats, per-megabyte pricing) than RIAA-sanctioned stores. Obviously consumers like it, and the RIAA hates it, refusing to accept any royalties from the Russian licensing agency.

I hope that iTunes, etc., at least adopt some of the features that made allofmp3.com so appealing.

Incidentally, if iTunes were to switch to offering full CD-quality tracks (Apple lossless, perhaps?) they wouldn't be too far off from allofmp3.com in terms of pricing or quality.

Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:33 pm

Try asking The Mac Observer's own John Kheit (http://www.macobserver.com/columns/devilsadvocate/index.html), who just happens to be representing allofmp3.com. Courtesy of ars technica:

"John Kheit, an IP attorney for Chadbourne & Parke in New York, is representing AllofMP3, and he had one basic point to make in the wake of the trade agreement: AllofMP3 is legal, and it's not going anywhere. Although the agreement indicates quite clearly that the Russians have agreed to brand AllofMP3 an illicit site, Kheit points out that diplomats can talk as much as they want, but AllofMP3 isn't illegal until judges decide. 'Legality is not decided by a legislative branch or an executive branch. It's decided by a court,' he said in response to a question from Ars Technica. And no such ruling has been handed down."

"AllofMP3: We're not going anywhere", http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061130-8330.html

Fri Dec 08, 2006 4:46 am

Since allofmp3.com is in Russia, are they not outside the jurisdiction of US law?

Certainly the US could go after them by making it illegal for US credit card companies or banks to process their payments (that's what congress did to shut down British gambling sites) - but any US court decision against allofmp3.com itself would be unenforceable, much like the Illinois court's decision against UK anti-spam site spamhaus.org.