GristyMcFisty and our very own
BadReligionPR forum moderator
extrordanaire, used the news
submit to tell us they saw about more
information on the tantalising situation with Allofmp3. For those that don't
frequent our P2P Forum, this is a site over in Russia that has put together
arguably the ultimate online music service. That is if you are only looking at
cost per megabyte. If you want it they have it in any format and any
quality too. How legal this situation is outside the borders there is
anyones guess.
However, currently there is
an exemption under existing Russian copyright legislation (Article 39 for
the aficionados) allowing phonograms to be performed publicly without the
authorisation of the copyright owner for broadcasting and cable
transmission. The Internet could be deemed to fall under this exemption. A
similar argument can be applied to copies in the cache memory of
computers.So as IFPI Russia"s legal adviser, Vladimir Dragunov, concedes:
"Because of these loopholes we don"t have much chance of succeeding if we
attack these companies who are using music files on the Internet under
current Russian laws.
"As for the
authors/publishers" rights, matters are more complex. Whilst the current
law makes it clear that there is a need for licences to cover the use of
musical works on the Internet in Russia, a fallout between the Russian
Authors" Organisation (RAO) and the Russian Organisation for Multimedia
and Digital Systems (ROMS), which had been licensing Russian digital music
services on its behalf, means that Allofmp3 is no longer licensed despite
its claims to the contrary. RAO terminated its agreement with ROMS at the
end of 2003, complaining that it had received very little money and no
accounting details from the four-year-old body which RAO had itself helped
to found. |
NFPP the Russian labels organization, told MusicAlly that "the
internet just isn't a priority for us now." There are bigger fish to
fry, including a $ 312 million dollar pirate CD problem.
Source: The Register
