The Cheney / Bush administration is using its power to try to close down AllofMP3.com, a small Russian site selling music on the Net and which represents competition to the Big Four Organized Music cartel as it tries to make sure its low-quality, high-priced product is the only product available online.

"I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone's intellectual property rights," declares US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, says Reuters, going on:

"Schwab's call for the allofmp3.com Web site to be closed came as the United States and Russia are trying once again to reach a deal on Moscow's 13-year-old bid to join the WTO. Those talks failed in July, primarily because of agricultural issues and U.S. concerns that Russia was not doing enough to stop piracy and counterfeiting of American goods."

Also in on the WTO act is Hollywood's MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).

Schwab originally joined the USTO as an agricultural trade negotiator and when she was named as USTR, "I look forward to working with her in the months ahead to advance the cause of fair access to fair markets on behalf of American industry," said MPAA boss Dan Glickman, who was once the US secretary of agriculture.

Glickman also has Greg Frazier as the MPAA's svp for international trade policy. Frazier, Glickman's special advisor since 2004, was his chief of staff at the agricultural department.

Meanwhile, Schwab's office earlier this, "year identified allofmp3.com as one the world's most notorious marketplaces for pirated goods," says Reuters, going on, "Last week, she singled out the Web site as the 'poster child' for illegal music sales over the Internet."

In reality, it's more of a poster child for the way things could and should be, but aren't, thanks entirely to the venal Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG.

In November last year, German Gref, Russia's minister for economic development and trade, "vowed to take action" against the so-called pirates, said the Big Four's says the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Drawing from one of the RIAA's favourite misinformation lines designed to paint file sharers as criminals similar to drug traffickers, Gref estimated the market of pirate production as equal in volume and proceeds to that of illegal drugs and now, "Gref and I are committed to doing everything we can to try to conclude," Schwab said.

However, AllofMP3.com is a perfect example of how, "different markets can, and should, price music according to the public's purchase power," Fading Ways Music owner Neil Leyton told delegates at the recent Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) conference in Paris, France, this summer.

Also See:
Reuters - U.S. pushes Russia in WTO talks to close mp3 Web site, October 4, 2006
agricultural trade negotiator - Hollywood's agronomical air, April 20, 2006
illegal drugs - The RIAA praises Russia, November 18, 2005
perfect example - Death bell for AllofMP3.com?, July 6, 2006