Not content with siccing the outgoing Bush administration on independent Russian music download site AllofMP3.com, Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 Organized Music cartel, are now suing Moscow-based Mediaservices, which runs Allofmp3.com and allTunes.com.
Fronted by Arista Records, Warner Bros, Capitol and UMG recordings, the cartel claims the site sells the download songs without permission.
Allofmp3.com, however, says its activities are perfectly legal and that it pays royalties to a Russian licensing body.
The Big 4 use the Bush administration to level the WTO as a weapon in their relentless bid to get rid of the service.
"I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site [AllofMP3.com] like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone's intellectual property rights," said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab recently.
The copyright infringement allegation closely resembles similar claims made by the Big 4 against their own customers, such as Patti Santangelo, the New York mother of five who, like AllofMP3.com, defies the labels.
It's all about competition, a filthy word in the Big Music lexicon.
As The Associated Press points out, "AllofMP3 typically charges under $1 for an entire album and just cents per track. By contrast, an album at Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store and other licensed services [supplied by the Big 4] typically costs about $10 and a song 99 cents."
"Allofmp3.com is already facing legal action from the British Phonographic Industry, on behalf of UK record labels," says Mosnews.
"The defendant's entire business... amounts to nothing more than a massive infringement of plaintiffs' exclusive rights under the Copyright Act and New York law," according to papers filed as part of the US legal action."
The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) is another of the many and various Big 4 so-called 'trade' organizations it's using in its carefully orchestrated scheme to gain complete control of how, and by whom, music is distributed online.
Today came news that another Big 4-inspired attack on AllofMP3.com has been thwarted by bloggers. Swedish ISP Perspektiv Bredband backed down after trying to impose a ban on the Russian site.
The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) is yet another of the cartel enforcement outfits and, "According to several sources Perspektiv Bredband was pressured by IFPI, the anti-piracy organisation of the record industry, to block AllofMP3.com and publicly announce that they, as an operator, were proud to take a stand," says Oscar Swartz :: Texplorer.
He goes on, "Yes, the content industry is very disturbed by the telecoms and operators who simply see themselves as neutral transmitters of whatever information that the users choose to communicate. They want the operators to serve as centralized gatekeepers. They sue them or threaten to sue them for being 'accomplices' in copyright infringement."
However, "We made a hasty decision and we withdrew from our mission," said Perspektiv Bredband, quoted by Pro Piracy Lobby.
"We are sorry about this. Together with our new chairman of the board, the management agrees that limiting Internet access is not within the framework of our business."
and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See: up and running - AllofMP3.com credit cards blocked, October 20, 2005 defies the labels - RIAA drops Santangelo p2p case, December 19, 2006 The Associated Press - Record labels sue operator of Russian music Web site AllofMP3.com, December 21, 2006 Mosnews - Record Labels Sue Operator of Russian Music Site AllofMP3.com, December 21, 2006 thwarted by bloggers - AllofMP3 blockade taken down, December 21, 2006 Oscar Swartz :: Texplorer - The soul of the Internet saved: Activism paid off!, December 21, 2006 Pro Piracy Lobby - Blockade removed!, December 21, 2005
