Allofmp3.com speaks out against US

Found on The Register on Thursday, 05 October 2006
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Allofmp3 sells music priced by file size at somewhere around a tenth of the cost per track of Western services like iTunes. America and record industry bodies say it does not pay any royalties and is illegal.

Allofmp3's owners maintain that as a Russian business it complies fully with local copyright law. It has achieved second position behind Apple in the UK digital music market, largely by word of mouth.

US trade representative Susan Schwab has been a prominent public critic of Allofmp3. Her office recently placed the company on a "notorious markets" list, and a speech last month blasted Russian authorities for allowing the site to operate freely.

An Allofmp3 spokesman local media: "Susan Schwab markets us so effectively - she could already be our press secretary."

First of all, as long as Allofmp3 complies with local law, everything is just fine. But the second point is much more disturbing: the fact that the media industry can oppress a whole country because one business there refuses to rip off its customers.