Friday, October 27, 2006

Is AllOfMP3 Finished?

Bargain hunters found the prices in Russia unbeatable for downloads but an organized campaign against AllofMP3 is having an effect. MasterCard and Visa are no longer honoring transactions for music purchase at the site and their press release shows they bought the RIAA propaganda. The last several weeks has bought a string of bad news.

Closing down legal foreign sites will just drive music lovers to illegal BitTorent downloads.
So technically AllOfMP3 is compliant with Russian intellectual property laws, and the real issue is that its merely illegal for users outside of Russia to use the site. It's slightly reminiscent of the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act ordeal in the United States that cracks down on the ability of Americans to gamble online, even though of course the rest of the world can....

Still reeling from the heavy pressure exerted by the United States in WTO talks, and the loss of Visa and Mastercard to conduct credit card transactions, AllOfMP3 was then hit by another blow just yesterday. This time it was a blow from the world of technology as a crack for its MusicForMasses program became available. The crack allows users to strip AllOfMP3's ".MP3X" DRM that it encodes its music with and download it to your PC as a standard MP3 for free....

What the future holds for AllOfMP3 is anybody's guess but, I have a feeling that ultimately it will be the Russian President Vladimir Putin who has the final word. Considering the way that newfound petrol dollars have emboldened Russia to take a firmer stand in world affairs, the notion of kowtowing to US laws in the face of preexisting Russian ones seems unlikely. Yet, perhaps it may also settled in a tried true capitalist fashion-dollars and cents. If the world community chokes off its ability to sell its product then economics will trump even the best of its abilities to survive.

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