Pseudo-victory of RIAA
The RIAA scored another victory after managing (at least, at first sight) to shut down AllofMP3 – a Russian music download store.
According to TorrentFreak the campaign was successful as a result of pressures coming from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the US government forcing the Kremlin to suspend AllofMP3 last year.
At that time about 6 million users were downloading songs and albums using the Russian download store.
Started in December 2006, the lawsuit ended on May 20th 2008 with the RIAA giving up its copyright infringement complaint against AllofMP3 which was now considered by Jonathan Lamy, an RIAA spokesman as “defunct and out of business, the result of a successful anti-piracy initiative.”
However, what Lamy fail to bring up was that same team that had started AllofMP3 is now “responsible” for a fully operational site, namely Mp3Sparks (image). The only difference between the two sites is the absence of any lawsuit threatening the latter.
The allegations filed by IFPI were dismissed in August 2007 AllofMP3 being acquitted in Russia and on October 24th 2007, the not-guilty verdict was established by a district court in Moscow.
Not only didn’t RIAA manage to neutralize a pirate site as it proudly announced but currently numerous such sites are escaping its claws in Russia, distributing unbothered very cheap music to those interested.
See a Top of Cheap Russian AllofMP3 Alternatives on TorrentFreak
