Allofmp3 returns

 

Gallery

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 29 Aug 2007 at 15:11

Russian music website AllofMP3 has vowed to return after its owner escaped jail earlier this month.

The controversial, cut-price music downloads service was shut down by the Russian government in July, under considerable pressure from the US government.

But Denis Kvasov, whose MediaServices company owns the website, subsequently escaped charges of copyright violation that could have landed him in prison.

Over the weekend the website reappeared under the heading "service will be resumed" and promising that all users will be able to use their accounts, top-up balances and order music.

In a blog posting the company said that the Ksavov ruling means that AllofMP3 is legal in Russian law.

"The court found no infringement of copyright law," it says. "According to the statement from the judge the site had paid a certain amount of the revenue to the right holders in full compliance with the law."

It also claims that the RIAA, which represents the major US record companies, refused royalty payments from ROMS, the Russian royalty collecting agency.

"Although ROMS operates within the law, IFPI insists that the only entity which could act on behalf of the labels and other rightholders and collect royalties is the Russian branch of IFPI (RPA - Russian Phonographic Association) and refuses to accept anything from ROMS," it says.

For its part, the IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries), the music industry's international body, insists that ROMS has no rights to license music to Allofmp3.