DarrenKitchen.net

I got my MP3.

I’m not sure how much of a victory this is, but my favorite Russian music download site is no longer under pressure as the DA for Moscow’s South-West district denied IPFI’s request to open a criminal case against Allofmp3.com. In Russian copyright law there is no prohibition of digital distribution over the Internet so the law can’t be applied against them. I guess its pretty easy to sum it up by saying that they violated the spirit, but not the letter of the law, and since there is no law to prosecute them with they will have to either ignore it or make a new law. That is, if they are in fact in violation of their ROMS licenses which has yet to be determined. If the later, knowing politics it will be a while before anything happens.

I still believe that importing music from another country, while upsetting the US record industry, is not illegal in the same sense that US corporations can manufacture goods cheaper offshore and import them to the states.

Unfortunately even if the Russian officials decide not to pursue Allofmp3.com we aren’t quite out of the woods yet. The IIPA, which the RIAA is a member of, has requested that the US government place trade restrictions on some countries due to copyright infringement issues. The PDF can be viewed here, in which the IIPA recommend that 15 countries including Russia (allofmp3.com), Pakistan, and Ukraine be placed on a priority watch list.

Quote from IIPA paper:

IIPA asks USTR to Name Russia, Pakistan and Ukraine as Priority Foreign Countries and to Commence WTO Consultations with the People’s Republic of China … Despite the repeated efforts of industry and the U.S. government to convince the Russian government to provide meaningful and deterrent enforcement of its copyright and other laws against OD factories and all types of piracy—including some of the most open and notorious websites selling unauthorized materials in the world, such as www.allofmp3.com—little progress has been made over the years regarding this egregious situation.

The IIPA is supported by the Association of American Publishers, the Business Software Alliance, the Entertainment Software Association, the Independent Film & Television Alliance, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America.

The fact that the RIAA is losing money to the Russians on Internet music sales means that they will fight tooth and nail to shut them down or make it illegal to buy from them in the US with trade restrictions. I would gladly buy from a US based online music store if they could compete with Allofmp3.com’s excellent pricing and format flexibility but the only options in the states are 20 times the price and the music is encumbered with digital restrictions on when, where, and how I can play the music.

So what do you think, will the WTO bite? What are the broader implications that this proposal brings, and what can be done to counter-act it? I suppose now would be a good time to support the Electronic Frontier Foundation but I’m afraid that, along with the broadcast flag, it’s too late.

By order of the prophet We ban that boogie sound Degenerate the faithful With that crazy casbah sound