The case was filed by the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industries (IFPI) in Denmark in the Copenhagen City
Court.
Allofmp3.com sells popular music downloads at a fraction of the
cost of sites such as Apple's iTunes Music Store. Operating in
Russia it says that it complies with Russian law; but the
international recording industry says that it is illegal.
Allofmp3.com sells music by file size volume and says that it
does pay a royalty, which goes to the Russian collection society
the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS). That society is
not generally recognised by international collecting societies and
artists must apply to it to receive any money.
Rory Davenport, a spokesman for Mediaservices, the website's
parent company, told PC Advisor: "It's surprising for a court in
that country to make a decision you would think is more common in a
place like China. We shouldn't be in the business of censoring
content."
John Kennedy, chairman and chief executive of IFPI, said: "This
judgment is one more step along the road to getting this rogue site
closed down. Allofmp3.com illegally offers for sale copies of music
that it has no right to reproduce or distribute. It provides unfair
competition to the nearly 400 legal sites worldwide that respect
the rights of composers, artists and record producers."
The Russian site is coming under increasing international
pressure. US authorities have made it clear in the past that they
consider it to be flaunting international copyright law and
creating a barrier to Russia joining the World Trade
Organisation.
Credit card companies Visa and Mastercard stopped dealing with
the site in October because they believed that the site operated in
violation of "basic international copyright and intellectual
property norms," according to a Visa statement.
The tactic of targeting ISPs rather than individual users is one
which may become more popular. The UK record industry lobby group
the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is demanding that ISPs
Tiscali and Cable & Wireless suspend users that it believes are
using internet accounts to distribute music without permission.
A total of 42 C&W and 17 Tiscali customers were identified
as sharing music files in contravention of the firms' usage
policies, the BPI said earlier this year. While Cable &
Wireless pledged to "take whatever steps are necessary to put the
matter right", Tiscali said that the BPI had not provided "proper
evidence" that offences had taken place.
