Translated material
Pirates in law
Visa was unable to prohibit paying with your cards for unlicensed products on the Internet
The international payment system Visa International has failed to successfully act as a defender of intellectual property rights. The company lost a lawsuit against the online store Alltunes.com, which sells unlicensed music. And although Visa will not challenge the court's decision, it has promised to continue its policy of resisting the use of the system's payment cards in such online stores. It is noteworthy that the court's decision came at a time when Russia is trying to become a member of the World Trade Organization.The Internet music portal Alltunes.com filed a lawsuit against Rosbank and the processing company UCS on the grounds that since October last year they have refused to service Visa cards when paying for services through this store. The financial institutions motivated the refusal by the fact that the Internet-Audit company (the direct owner of Alltunes.com) “distributes phonograms of musical works on the Internet without the consent of the copyright holders.” And this does not comply with Visa’s internal rules. Therefore, the payment system, together with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), acted as co-defendants in court.
Visa failed to win the case, although the company does sell audio recordings without the written permission of their authors. The Moscow Arbitration Court ruled on July 2 that the demands of Visa and IFPI, as well as the defendants’ refusal to fulfill the contract for servicing payments through this site, are not lawful, since “only the court can prohibit the implementation of actions related to the illegal use of copyright and related rights upon the claim of the owners exclusive rights."
Rosbank, which acts as an acquiring bank, could not say whether they would service card payments through this site. The credit institution referred to the fact that they had not yet made a final decision on whether they would challenge the court decision. In an official statement, Visa said: “The company respects the court's decision and will not challenge it. However, Visa will continue to make every effort to ensure that its resources are not misused. We will continue to cooperate with Russian banks - members of Visa and will look for an acceptable solution in relation to such resources as AllOfMP3.com and Alltunes.com, taking into account the ambiguity of the assessment of their activities from a legal point of view.”
As you know, at the end of last year, several large Western record companies, such as Sony BMG and Warner Bros., filed a class action lawsuit in the court of the Southern District of New York against the Russian Media Services, which owns the website www.AllOFMP3.com. The plaintiffs accused Media Services of copyright infringement and demanded a ban on selling music materials over the Internet. Although the lawsuit continues, the online music store was shut down in early July. The fact is that the issue of the legality of the activities of AllOFMP3.com was raised at the WTO negotiations between Russia and the United States. Then US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that she could not imagine Russia's membership in the WTO as long as this site existed. It is noteworthy that the actual owner of Alltunes.com is also considered to be the Media Services company.
Please note that problems with using Visa cards on the Internet arise not only among clients of online stores selling unlicensed products. A month ago, an employee of Vremya Novostey was unable to book a room in an American hotel using a Visa Classic card issued by MDM Bank. The bank branch told us that, at the request of Visa, it does not conduct transactions via the Internet. Yesterday, the payment system stated that the bank was not given such instructions.