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NY Court May Close Down Russia’s Allofmp3.com
The world’s major record labels went to court on Wednesday to sue Russia’s Mediaservices, the owner of the allofmp3.com and alltunes.com web-sites. The Russian company is accused of violating copyright in the United States. Legal experts believe that after proving copyright violations the record companies will put a kibosh on the popular Russian Internet music stores.
Sony BMG, UMG Recordings, Warner Bros. Records and other major record companies filed a suit with the New York Federal Court against Mediaservices on Wednesday, asking to halt the sale of audio files via the company’s web-sites. Mediaservices’s allofmp3.com is ranked second after iTunes Music Stores in terms of music downloads in the UK. The Russian web-sites attract buyers with their prices which are normally ten times lower than that of their Western counterparts. The turnover of allofmp3.com is estimated at $6-14 million annually.
Major record labels have gone to the U.S. court, hoping for a decision which could close down the web-sites. Legal experts say the chances of this are high. The choice of the New York Court was no accident as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has its headquarters in New York. Valery Tutykhin from John Tyner and Partners says: “If copyright owners prove copyright violations by Mediaservices – which I think they will – the court will simply sanction to liquidate the domain names.” Mr. Tutykhin believes that allofmp3.com and alltunes.com may be wound up by next summer.
Mediaservices persists in claiming that they work legally, saying they are selling music under a license of the Russian Multimedia and Digital Networks Society.
The shutdown of allofmp3.com will be a good surprise for Russia ahead of its accession to the WTO. This fall, the issue of copyright and music piracy was high on the agenda at talks between U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and his Russian counterpart German Gref. The Russian economic development and trade minister promised to settle the issue by barring companies from using a collective management of copyright agreement if they have no direct agreements with copyright owners.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 22, 2006
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