A couple of months ago, we asked (and tried to answer) a few questions about Russian music download services—specifically: are they legit? Yesterday the International Herald Tribune addressed the same issue, again in the context of Russia’s attempt to join the World Trade Organization.
Operating through what music industry lobbyists say is a loophole in Russia’s copyright law, AllofMP3 offers a vast catalogue of music that includes artists not normally authorized for sale online—like the Beatles and Metallica—at a small fraction the cost of services like Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store.
Sold by the megabyte instead of by the song, an album of 10 songs or so on AllofMP3 can cost the equivalent of less than $1, compared with 99 cents per song on iTunes.
And unlike iTunes and other commercial services, songs purchased with AllofMP3’s downloading software have no restrictions on copying.
It is an offer that may seem too good to be true, but in Russia—a country that is frequently cited by media and content owners as rife with digital piracy and theft of intellectual property—courts have so far allowed the site to operate, despite efforts by the record labels Warner, Universal and EMI to aid prosecutors there.
Apparently the Russian “collecting society,” ROMS (Российское общество по коллективному управлению правами авторов и иных правообладателей в сферах мультимедиа, цифровых сетей и визуальных искусств РОМС), doesn’t do a particularly good job of passing along a portion of the money it legally (according to current Russian law) collects from its customers to the artists and record companies it represents (whether they like it or not).
AllofMP3.com has hardly put a dent in Apple’s music download business, despite the occasional free publicity from stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times (via its sister paper IHT). Will this relatively small but highly visible irritant be enough to dash Russia’s hopes for entry into the WTO? Or will ROMS, AllofMP3.com, etc., make the necessary adjustments to satisfy the entertainment industry? Stay iTuned.
