The pirate died

The most popular Russian site for downloading music is closed to the scandalously known Russian site for downloading music Allofmp3.com closed. Last week, he stopped loading, and on this site owner - MediaService has launched an alternative resource mp3sparks.com. The reason for the closing of allofmp3.com is constant accusations of illegally distributing the content with the copyright content site.

A decisive role in the fate of the resource was played by the warnings of high -ranking representatives of the United States. They repeatedly and harshly stated that Russia could not cope with piracy in the field of music and video, and this may prevent the country from joining the WTO. According to the British newspaper The Times, ultimately the resource was closed under the pressure of the Kremlin.

The Times recalls that last year the US trade representative Susan Schwab and the head of Mart, German Gref signed an agreement in which the Russian side promised to close allofmp3.com. Within two years, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has closely monitored the work of the resource. At the beginning of this year, MediaService suffered serious damage: Visa and MasterCard informed her that they would no longer be able to make payments for AllofMP3.com services. Despite this, the resource lasted another six months.

In total, the site managed to attract at least 5.5 million customers. Most of them were Russians, but the resource was very popular abroad, in particular in the UK and the United States, where it was second only to iTunes by the number of visitors. The difference between resources is the price of the services provided. If the ITunes visitor is recording one song in 79 pence, then on the Russian site for only 1 pound you could completely download the music album.

The owners of allofmp3.com claim that they did not violate copyrights and acted on the basis of a license issued by the Russian Society for the Collective Management of the Rights of Authorities and other copyright holders in the fields of multimedia, digital networks and visual arts, and the site itself was registered in Russian multimedia and digital networks. The Media Service states that the company made deductions in favor of copyright owners.

However, all these explanations have not satisfied the Western competitors of the Media Service for a long time. Last summer, the British Association of Sound Recording (BPI) initiated the court prosecution of a Russian company, accusing it of audiopiracy. Six months later, such large sound recording companies as Warner Bros., Sony BMG, Capital Records, UMG appealed to the New York court. Lawyers and industry experts already predicted allofmp3.com an ambulance, although they said that the resource would certainly resurrect under a different name. As you can see, they were not mistaken.

07/03/2007 / Evlalia Samedova, the material was published in the newspaper No. 119 dated 04.07.2007.