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allofmp3faq

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They run a business designed to profit from promoting artists.

allofmp3 is run by russian mafia thugs who sell music they haven't licensed.

It belongs in the same box with the diatribes about how DRM is a single entity that can only be bad.

Please, go ahead and show me what's illegal about allofmp3, they're paying royalties just like every other online music site.

There is plenty of information on this topic at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allofmp3 and http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm It's certainly possible to make a case for the site being legal, but doing so requires some assumptions that are so fundamentally wrong that I don't understand how people can defend them.

The position of the Russian ROMS system that collects royalties seems to be that their members can sell just about any music they want, and it's the copyright holder's job to make sure they collect their fair share of the royalties for it. Clearly this is backwards; they shouldn't sell anything until they've obtained those rights first. If they were properly licensing music so that US artists were compensated properly for it, that money would be returning to the US via organizatios like the IFPI. Their press release at http://www.pro-music.org/musiconline/news060602a.h tm says that's not happening, and summarizes things nicely with:

"The site claims to have a licence from ROMS, a Russian organisation that claims to be a collecting society. Yet ROMS has no rights from the record companies whatsoever to licence these pieces of music. ROMS and allofmp3.com are well aware that record companies have not granted authorisation for this service."

If you look at the Museekster link above, I think the Beatles/Metallica situation highlights best the problems with allofmp3. From that site: "under Russian law a collecting society like ROMS automatically has the right to license ANY intellectual property to Russian distributors, even if the author is not subject to Russian law." This is a good summary of what I've read in several places, and this situation is obviously nonsense. If I own the copyright on something, you can't just decide that it's OK to distribute it. Tell me how those two artists can possibly be compensated for their work properly when it's their position that no one in the entire world is even allowed to sell their works on-line. The only legal way to own the Beatles or Metallica music is to purchase their CDs (or LPs, 8-tracks, etc.), period. If you don't like that, don't listen to them. It obviously follows from this fact that anyone distributing those artist's music via other means is a criminal, no matter what lame "it's legal here!" nonsense they spew.

If you're already aware of all this, and consider yourself clean anyway, well good for you. I occasionally socialize with people who worked on Beatles albums and I like feeling comfortable when I talk to them. I don't pick their pockets when I see them, and I'm not real fond of thieves who do.

"Allofmp3 has signed agreements with the collecting society, Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems (ROMS).... Right holders have to sign an agreement with ROMS to be able to collect their royalties. Probably artists and labels from outside Russia refuse to sign an agreement or are advised by their lawyers to refrain from addressing ROMS because this could be deemed as an acknowledgment of ROMS' position as a collection society."

To point #2 the law that allows the import of media purchased legally outside the U.S. into the U.S. also stipulates that it must be for personal use...

This site has some good information.

Allofmp3.com pays ROMS (the russian recording industry) (http://www.roms.ru/romseng/index.html) which is why they are allowed to exist. ROMS is responsible for paying the artists. Now, perhaps ROMS keeps all the money for themselves, but that is not allofmp3.com's problem. American artists may not get anything, but there are Russian artists, and I'm sure they get paid, otherwise allofmp3.com would not exist.

Interview here:
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3interview.htm

a) They pay royalties to ROMS.

b) Labeling law abiding Russians mafiosos is equivalent to labeling peaceful Arabs terrorists. It cheapens the discussion rather than elevating it.

Translation: allofmp3 is not illegal in Russia for Russian customers. But we know it is illegal just about everywhere else. We pretend we don't know the laws, and we place the burden on you, the customer, to not do anything illegal (like using our site) if you are outside of Russia. So don't try and blame us for doing anything wrong.

You just made that up. Evidence please?

Try this:

http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm#Is%20usi ng%20Allofmp3%20legal?


Title 17 Chapter 6 Sec. 602 of the U.S. Code covers "Infringing importation of copies or phonorecords". You can find this title here

Subsection (a) tells us:

        *

            "Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501."

So it's illegal you may think. But take a close look at sub (a)(2):

        *

            "This subsection does not apply to importation, for the private use of the importer and not for distribution, by any person with respect to no more than one copy or phonorecord of any one work at any one time, or by any person arriving from outside the United States with respect to copies or phonorecords forming part of such person's personal baggage;"

If MP3's, OGG's etc are in fact considered phonorecords, U.S. citizens can legally buy these as long if they are for private use and not for distribution. If MP3s, OGG's etc. are not considered phonorecords, no import laws apply. The sections of digital audio recording and sound recording have no mention of importation.

So in layman's terms the bottom line of this discussion is:

        *

            Downloading from Allofmp3 is legal for U.S. Citizens, as long as the files are for private use and not for distribution.

The only thing monopolistic about the digital music business is how the record labels, through their monopoly on specific artists' music, can use that leverage to enfore draconian licensing and protection technologies on the industry.

Fortunately, the Russians are hard at work on this problem.

Yes, it's legal, even for you and me.

Strict copyright legislation

Now for the country that may well have the strictest rules on copyrights, the USA. A thread in the Fatwallet forums brings some light in his confusing subject. We will not bother you with all the details. Here is a concise version of the interesting parts:

        *

            "MP3's, OGG's, etc are not illegal in the USA and therefore can be imported. There is also no law against importing music from other countries (including Russia). Because you are buying this legally in Russia and then importing to the USA, this should be 100% legit. For example, assuming that Russian Vodka is illegal to buy in the USA on Sunday, but you buy the Russian Vodka in Moscow on Sunday, then you import it into the USA, you have done nothing wrong. Again, this assumes that 1) it is illegal to buy Russian Vodka on Sunday in the USA 2) it is legal in Moscow and 3) it is legal to import Russian Vodka."

Title 17 Chapter 6 Sec. 602 of the U.S. Code covers "Infringing importation of copies or phonorecords". You can find this title here

Subsection (a) tells us:

        *

            "Importation into the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright under this title, of copies or phonorecords of a work that have been acquired outside the United States is an infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies or phonorecords under section 106, actionable under section 501."

So it's illegal you may think. But take a close look at sub (a)(2):

        *

            "This subsection does not apply to importation, for the private use of the importer and not for distribution, by any person with respect to no more than one copy or phonorecord of any one work at any one time, or by any person arriving from outside the United States with respect to copies or phonorecords forming part of such person's personal baggage;"

If MP3's, OGG's etc are in fact considered phonorecords, U.S. citizens can legally buy these as long if they are for private use and not for distribution. If MP3s, OGG's etc. are not considered phonorecords, no import laws apply. The sections of digital audio recording and sound recording have no mention of importation.

So in layman's terms the bottom line of this discussion is:

        *

            Downloading from Allofmp3 is legal for U.S. Citizens, as long as the files are for private use and not for distribution.

From the article you cite: "AllofMP3.com cannot be charged for piracy, prosecutors ruled, under the current criminal law."

That's not a technicality, that means what they're doing is not illegal, unless some other definition of illegal is in force than "acts you can be prosecuted for."

If it's legal for allofmp3.com to sell digital goods in Russia, then it would appear to be legal to import those digital goods to many jurisdictions. Under what US legislation is it illegal to buy an mp3 file in Russia and import it to the US?

As for other issues, according to this site allofmp3.com pays licence fees to the Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems (ROMS) for the files it distributes. Rightsholders can collect remuneration through ROMS.

allofmp3.com appears on all the available evidence to be legal, and no amount of ranting about technicalities and "stupidly paying allofmp3.com [for] the privilege" negates that.

"ROMS manages intellectual rights in the Russian Federation. All third party distributors licensed by ROMS are required to pay a portion of the revenue to the ROMS. ROMS in turn, is obligated to pay most of that money (aside from small portion it needs for operating expenses) to artists. Both Russian and foreign."

From
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm

Russian copyright legislation allows phonograms to be performed publicly without the authorization of the copyright owner for broadcasting and cable transmission. (Article 39) The Internet could be deemed to fall under this exemption. The copyrights involved have to be paid to a collecting society. This is the 'loophole' that is referred to in several articles on Allofmp3.

an interesting discussion of allofmp3's legality and mafia connections here: http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm

The royalties that people pay for the sale of music are fixed by ASCAP. The reason allofmp3 can charge so little is that with the exchange rate of the crappy Russian currency that rate is cheap for us (paying in US$ converted to whatever their currency is called).

Does the Russian mob run allofmp3.com? I doubt it. If they are, then they have a credible puppet.

I've bought quite a few "CDs" from allofmp3.com. Very few of them I'd have bought at the going rate (US$15, or there abouts). I think the point the original poster (that we're all replying to) was making is that the music industry is their own worst enemy. If I could by an album for US$5, I wouldn't use allofmp3.com (except for really questionable purhases that I didn't think was even worth US$5).

So allofmp3.com is fully legal. As for the artists getting their share: "Allofmp3 has signed agreements for this with Russian Organization for Multimedia & Digital Systems (ROMS). According to license --02-36 the Internet-project www.allofmp3.com, has the right to use musical compositions by providing downloads. Under the license agreement Allofmp3 pays out fees to ROMS for downloaded materials that are subject to the Russian Federation Copyright And Related Rights Law.

ROMS is a member of CISAC (www.cisac.org) - the International confederation of authors and composers societies. ROMS manages intellectual rights in the Russian Federation. All third party distributors licensed by ROMS are required to pay a portion of the revenue to the ROMS. ROMS in turn, is obligated to pay most of that money (aside from small portion it needs for operating expenses) to artists. Both Russian and foreign."

So stop worrying and enjoy cheap legal music :)

The actual, real lawyers who've chimed in on similar allofmp3 discussions in the past around here have typically pointed to S 602, importing. Importation is a huge part of copyright law. The museekster FAQ references S 602 and states that this does not qualify -- but consider the source. However, I've read the opinions of lawyers I trust, who say that it does. Of course, opinions are just opinions until there is a court ruling.

In general, if you're comfortable with paying a bunch of Russians knowing that your money is not going to anybody who took part in the production of the music -- that is, "is it legal or not?" is your only real issue, and not "is it moral or not?", then pick the opinion you trust the most, and go with that. I'd say the odds of an individual person being busted for using allofmp3 are practically nil.

" According to this article http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm [museekster.com] AllOfMP3 is operating legallly in Russia. Near the bottom of the page, it says Moscow police investigated them, and prosecutirs found nothing wrong."

So-called "Lolita" sites, which feature nude photos of minors and would be waaaaay over the line in the US and most countries, operate happily in Russia as well. They sell subscriptions to anybody with a credit card, but it's strictly caveat emptor -- if it's a no-no in your country, and you're caught with the material, it's your ass.

I wonder if the pedophiles in the US who subscribe to such services use the "but it's legal in Russia!" excuse.

According to this article http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm [museekster.com] AllOfMP3 is operating legallly in Russia. Near the bottom of the page, it says Moscow police investigated them, and prosecutirs found nothing wrong.

Prosecutors in Russia often find nothing wrong with human sex traffic dealers as well...

According to this article http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm AllOfMP3 is operating legallly in Russia. Near the bottom of the page, it says Moscow police investigated them, and prosecutirs found nothing wrong.

Try again. http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3info.htm

From that article:
Allofmp3.com is an on-line music service based in Moscow, Russia. The service started in 2001.

When we first discovered this site we were convinced that Allofmp3 is some kind of illegal operation. But by investigating this service further we came to a surprising conclusion.

Allofmp3 has signed agreements with Russian copyrights holders. They can legally offer music by all artists and from all labels.

In the past few months Allofmp3 has finally been discovered by the media. Smh.com, The Register and G4Techtv and the Wall Street Journal have published articles covering Allofmp3.

Allofmp3 is (or should we say was?) one of the best kept secrets of the internet. A music service with unique features. It sets an example for every other music service.

Awarded in Europe as the best Music Service

No wonder it has been awarded as the best Music Service by the leading German computer magazine C't. Even the official Consumers' Organization in The Netherlands has chosen Allofmp3 as the best place to download music. "The best service by far" was their surprising conclusion after testing seven services available in The Netherlands.

Heres another link. Read this too, and then try again.
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm

Try again. http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3info.htm

From that article:
Allofmp3.com is an on-line music service based in Moscow, Russia. The service started in 2001.

When we first discovered this site we were convinced that Allofmp3 is some kind of illegal operation. But by investigating this service further we came to a surprising conclusion.

Allofmp3 has signed agreements with Russian copyrights holders. They can legally offer music by all artists and from all labels.

In the past few months Allofmp3 has finally been discovered by the media. Smh.com, The Register and G4Techtv and the Wall Street Journal have published articles covering Allofmp3.

Allofmp3 is (or should we say was?) one of the best kept secrets of the internet. A music service with unique features. It sets an example for every other music service.

Awarded in Europe as the best Music Service

No wonder it has been awarded as the best Music Service by the leading German computer magazine C't. Even the official Consumers' Organization in The Netherlands has chosen Allofmp3 as the best place to download music. "The best service by far" was their surprising conclusion after testing seven services available in The Netherlands.

Heres another link. Read this too, and then try again.
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm

Who knows if these are right, but here are some interesting analyses:

http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm
http://www.fadmine.com/allofmp3-legal-cheap-mp3s.h tml

From the above pages:
"Actually, in terms of the law in the U.S., this is rather interesting. You are, in this case, importing legal songs (importing since it's Russian based). Now, just because this service is illegal in the USA, that does not mean that using it is illegal. Why? MP3's, OGG's, etc are not illegal in the USA and therefore can be imported. There is also no law against importing music from other countries (including Russia). And because you are buying this legally in Russia and then importing to the USA, this should be 100% legit. For example, assuming that Russian Vodka is illegal to buy in the USA on Sunday, but you buy the Russian Vodka in Moscow on Sunday, then you import it into the USA, you have done nothing wrong. Again, this assumes that 1) it is illegal to buy Russian Vodka on Sunday in the USA 2) it is legal in Moscow and 3) it is legal to import Russian Vodka."

Museekster have investigated them and found that they do all their business legally. They have even won an award.

Besides, that Russian organization is licensed for that task in Russia, not the U.S., Canada, or the EU. Royalty percentages in Rubles versus Dollars (or Euros) is not exactly fair.

Rubbish! AllOfMp3.com do all transactions in US dollars. I am sure that the artists can request to receive their royalties in dollars too.

But it's legality is quite dubious and the RIAA has had a couple of goes at it. At the moment it lives in a loophole of the russian copyright system that is unlikely to be closed - those russians have bigger problems to deal with first.

So I guess it depends on how squeeky clean do you want to be???

So in layman's terms the bottom line of this discussion is:

• Downloading from Allofmp3 is legal for U.S. Citizens, as long as the files are for private use and not for distribution.

Looks legit enough to me.

1. The Songwriter
2. The Artist
3. The Label maker and producer

Is it legal to download music from site AllOFMP3.com?

All the materials in the MediaServices projects are available for distribution through Internet according to license # LS-3Ì-05-03 of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. Under the license terms, MediaServices pays license fees for all the materials subject to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights". All the materials are available solely for personal use and must not be used for further distribution, resale or broadcasting.

Users are responsible for any usage and distribution of all materials received from AllOFMP3.com. This responsibility depends on the local legislation of each user's country of residence. AllOFMP3.com's Administration does not keep up with the laws of different countries and is not responsible the actions of non-Russian users.

All Of MP3's Terms of Use Contract

Other supporting sites on legalities of useing ALLofMP3

ALLOFMP3 FAQ
Misticriver Forum
A third Forum

Actually it is completely legal inside of russia. And it is probably technically legal to use from the US too. See http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm /
And there is no indication that I can see that the Russian Mafia runs this site. I'm sure the mafia is involved with most facets of russian business, but I see no obvious direct connection. Some arge the RIAA here in the US is basically a mob.

If you'd read up on their business model, you'll find that they do pay fees to the copyright holders association (according to Russian law). This company has been in business for several years and has had no negative reports against it of any kind that I can find.

It is too bad we can't have a similar company here in the US offering cheap unencumbered downloads. Clearly the market price would be much higher per track than the 16 cents allofmp3.com is asking, but still low enough to pretty much eliminate the tendency to pirate.

Another thing I like about allofmp3.com is that they have all of the old stuff I like. Stuff that I have to go to used stores to find the CDs for these days. By now RIAA fees probably don't even go to the original artists since they've long left the music scene.

All the materials in the MediaServices projects are available for distribution through Internet according to license # LS-3-05-03 of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. Under the license terms, MediaServices pays license fees for all the materials subject to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights". All the materials are available solely for personal use and must not be used for further distribution, resale or broadcasting.

This FAQ http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm/ has got some information about the legality of allofmp3.com

If they want to sell in Russia (they could abstain, of course) then they must abide by the rules presented to then in Russia.

But a law that says, 'to do business in Russia, you have to permit Russians to generally ignore your copyrights in the US, and permit others to do the same' isn't worth the paper it's printed on in the US.

This is because activities in Russia occur only under the 'hat' of a Russian copyright holder. They don't influence what happens when wearing the hat of a US copyright holder. There's no agreement that's enforcable in the US.

You appear to have made that idea up, whole-cloth.

I wish. It seems that every idiot that comes along saying that downloading from allofmp3 is legal cites a discussion located here indicating that allofmp3 operates under a license from some group called ROMS.

ROMS seems to have issued a press release here which states: ROMS is authorized by the Russian law on copyright and related rights as well as by its members and other copyright managers, including foreign, to issue user licenses on behalf of all Russian and foreign rightsholders.

So when I see an entity authorized by Russian law to issue licenses, where that entity is NOT the copyright holder, I see a compulsory license.

We enforce compulsory licensing in the U.S. in other cases. Is there some reasons we would disregard it here?

We enforce US compulsory licensing laws here. However, we do not, as a rule of thumb, enforce foreign law within the US. So that's why we disregard it. It isn't our law. It has no effect within our borders.

If they don't want to experience the downside to Russian sales, they can choose not to sell in Russia at all.

Sure -- but since the US won't enforce that against them, it doesn't much matter. It's a downside that only applies within Russian jurisdiction.

we've already covered that those bans apply to illegally-gotten music.

Yes, but illegally, where the law in question is that of the US. Since the US has no provision allowing for compulsory licensing of sound recordings, they're per se illegal, regardless of Russian law.

If I legally buy a CD in Russia, there exists no legal precedent of which I am aware to make that CD suddenly illegal in the U.S.

Only the US copyright holder can authorize the making of a copy that is legal for import into the US. So if you legally buy a CD in Russia that was not made with the authorization of that entity, where such authorization is valid under US law, it's illegal for import.

our own USPTO has conjoined with to set international policy on recorded works

You're saying that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has set policy on copyrights? Isn't that a bit outside their mandate? I would think that the United States Copyright Office would be more involved with that. (And also Congress, the President, the US Trade Representative, various international lobbyists, etc.)

The Russian recording contracts are vetted by WIPO for compliance.

Where the fuck are you coming up with this crap? WIPO does no such thing. They're a trade treaty organization. They don't deign to to look at individual contracts.

1. It is illegal to download from there in the US and probably most contries other than Russia.

Is this true? Import CDs are legal. If buying and downloading from allofmp3.com is, in fact, illegal, then would it be okay for them to mail me a CD with my purchased songs instead of downloading them?

I spent some time googling and found an answer to my own question, though hardly a definitive one.

...at least that's what I gathered. I doubt this question can truly be answered without going to court.

The pertinent statute is 17 USC 602

Not really revelavent to people's use of allofmp3.com, since it exempts importation for personal use.

Some consideration of allofmp3.com legal issues can be found here.

"Now lets look at the US law. You can legally acquire music from anyone who has a legitimate right to distribute it. You can buy from a iTunes, because it was licensed by RIAA, you can buy it from Canada, if it is licensed by CRIA, you can buy it from Russia, if it was licensed by ROMS."

I should have previewed. Here's the FAQ.

DJChemistry, a Law student who has written a thesis on the US' efforts to establish a minimum set of international intellectual property standards concludes that:

* You are completely home free by downloading from this website right now. In the future, I cannot guarantee so. However, any changes that will affect the legal status of these downloads will be conspicuous and more than likely featured in the NY Times many times over.

Take a look at this intersting Allofmp3 FAQ by www.museekster.com

allofmp3.com is 100% legal

Like all FUD, it relies on most people's ignorance of the details and gullibility (hey, it's a large American organization, they can't be wrong, can they?):

The offered downloads are without the authorisation of the respective rights holders and therefore infringe copyright,

No one ever claimed that they have the authorisation of the "rights holders" (the people who hold the rights in the USA, not in Russia). But allofmp3.com doesn't need it. More specifically, the Russian acceptance of US copyrights is based on the Berne Convention, which Russia didn't ratify until May 1995. US works that precede this date were - in Russia - placed in the public domain, which means: bad luck for IFPI/MIPI. allofmp3.com may offer these without even paying royalties (I'm not sure whether they do anyway). For more recent music pieces, allofmp3.com does not require a permission by the copyright holder (e.g. the US label) either. but they have to pay royalties to the russian collection society, ROMS, which in turn pays most of the royalties to the labels. They do, so no problem here either.

So it looks like allofmp3 is not infringing on any rights that US labels actually have, but only on rights that they would like to have. It's up to the MIPI, IFPI, RIAA and how they're all called to put their money where their mouth is and actually sue allofmp3.com. After all, if they are right, it should be easy to stop their business, shouldn't it?

Check this page out:
http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm

Have a read of this.

You can make your own mind up on the issue I guess.

Quite pertinent is this bit of information however (this is an oversight not unrelated to the view aired on here that Indian programmers are left in some form of poverty by the outsourcers)

But the most important factor is that one US dollar is worth lots of rubles. In Russia CDs cost about 100 rubles ($3). So to Russians Allofmp3 is in fact almost as expensive as iTunes to Americans.

Personally I think it boils down the Russians refusing to buy into the American drive to bring standardised copyright legislation to the world.

Standardised - good, American system effectively bought and paid for by the corporations under America's ludicrous all but in name bribe-oriented political system? - bad (you could argue with me on that, but did The People really want Disney to be able to refuse works entry into the public domain this side of the Sun dying?)

Well, when you do start buying online, I'd go with allofmp3.com Songs are a few cents apiece-- most albums cost less than the $0.99 apple charges for a single song. *And* they have the entire Beatles catalog available. It's 100% legal. It's no worse than buying a CD from Amazon.co.uk.

How can this possibly be? It's due to the wonders of international copyright law.

I spend $4 to $6 a month there.. which ends up being 7-8 albums a month, DRM-free mp3's.

That's a lot better than Apple's pricing scheme, where you'd get 4-6 SONGS per month, with all kinds of fucked up DRM which limits what you can do with what you've LEGALLY PURCHASED.

Screw the RIAA, download songs legally for pennies from Allofmp3.com. Download 'em in whatever format you like, as well, from WMA, MP3 (Lame), MPC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Monkey's Ape, etc. Cheap. Legal (or at least currently safe from any worry of legal prosecution). No DRM. And they even have artists you'll find nowhere else online (legally), like The Beatles.

There are some songs on allofmp3.com that aren't available on iTunes, so it's very tempting... but...

Is there any reason I should think that Museekster.com has any credibility? IP law is a convoluted mess right now, and this guy doesn't exactly sound like a lawyer. I also couldn't help but notice the disclaimer on the site:

"...The author reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided. Liability claims regarding damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind of information which is incomplete or incorrect,will therefore be rejected..."

Pretty standard fare given our lawsuit-crazed society, I suppose, but still...

That allofmp3.com offers Beatles and Metallica albums seems troublesome, too, and I'm not sure that the explanation put forth by Museekster.com holds water:

"...The Beatles and Metallica have not authorized their music to be sold online for anyone. Yet Allofmp3 offers about any Beatles and Metallica album ever released.

There are two reasons:

• Foreign works released before 1973 are not protected in Russia. Russia signed the Berne Convention without the retrospective protection.
• The second reason is that under Russian law a collecting society like ROMS automatically has the right to license ANY intellectual property to Russian distributors, even if the author is not subject to Russian law.

This explains why Allofmp3 can offer music that is not licensed for downloading in the US and Europe, like music by The Beatles or Metallica..."

Uh... okaaay...

I'd like to believe this is all nice and legal, but the cynic in me can't make the leap. (Damn!)

There are some songs on allofmp3.com that aren't available on iTunes, so it's very tempting... but...

Is there any reason I should think that Museekster.com has any credibility? IP law is a convoluted mess right now, and this guy doesn't exactly sound like a lawyer. I also couldn't help but notice the disclaimer on the site:

"...The author reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided. Liability claims regarding damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind of information which is incomplete or incorrect,will therefore be rejected..."

Pretty standard fare given our lawsuit-crazed society, I suppose, but still...

That allofmp3.com offers Beatles and Metallica albums seems troublesome, too, and I'm not sure that the explanation put forth by Museekster.com holds water:

"...The Beatles and Metallica have not authorized their music to be sold online for anyone. Yet Allofmp3 offers about any Beatles and Metallica album ever released.

There are two reasons:

• Foreign works released before 1973 are not protected in Russia. Russia signed the Berne Convention without the retrospective protection.
• The second reason is that under Russian law a collecting society like ROMS automatically has the right to license ANY intellectual property to Russian distributors, even if the author is not subject to Russian law.

This explains why Allofmp3 can offer music that is not licensed for downloading in the US and Europe, like music by The Beatles or Metallica..."

Uh... okaaay...

I'd like to believe this is all nice and legal, but the cynic in me can't make the leap. (Damn!)

There are some songs on allofmp3.com that aren't available on iTunes, so it's very tempting... but...

Is there any reason I should think that Museekster.com has any credibility? IP law is a convoluted mess right now, and this guy doesn't exactly sound like a lawyer. I also couldn't help but notice the disclaimer on the site:

"...The author reserves the right not to be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided. Liability claims regarding damage caused by the use of any information provided, including any kind of information which is incomplete or incorrect,will therefore be rejected..."

Pretty standard fare given our lawsuit-crazed society, I suppose, but still...

That allofmp3.com offers Beatles and Metallica albums seems troublesome, too, and I'm not sure that the explanation put forth by Museekster.com holds water:

"...The Beatles and Metallica have not authorized their music to be sold online for anyone. Yet Allofmp3 offers about any Beatles and Metallica album ever released.

There are two reasons:

• Foreign works released before 1973 are not protected in Russia. Russia signed the Berne Convention without the retrospective protection.
• The second reason is that under Russian law a collecting society like ROMS automatically has the right to license ANY intellectual property to Russian distributors, even if the author is not subject to Russian law.

This explains why Allofmp3 can offer music that is not licensed for downloading in the US and Europe, like music by The Beatles or Metallica..."

Uh... okaaay...

I'd like to believe this is all nice and legal, but the cynic in me can't make the leap. (Damn!)

It's a pretty cheap service, but some doubts were brought up whether Americans could legally use the service.

Those doubts are quickly allayed here. allofmp3.com is perfectly legal under US law. The RIAA doesn't like it, and will tell you otherwise, but they are being no more honest than the MPAA is when it flashes those FBI warnings at the beginning of each DVD telling you you have no right to make a backup copy for personal use ... knowing full well that the law and the courts consistently say otherwise.

The short explaination for those too lazy to follow the above link.

1) Under US law, anyone may import any music so long as they are licensed to do so under the copyright laws of their own country. If you buy a mailorder CD from Canada and the company is licensed by either the artist or the CIAA member company, it is legal to import the CD. If you buy a mailorder CD from the US and the US seller is licensed by the artist (or the RIAA member company), it is legal. Under Russian copyright law, which the US is bound by treaty to respect, allofmp3.com has a license to distribute all copyrighted music from the Russian equivelent of the RIAA, known as ROMS.

The RIAA may hate the fact that you can buy $0.99 iTunes songs in whatever unencumbered format you like for around $0.04 per song, but the law throughout the developed world, including the USA, is quite clear that this is a perfectly legal service to use, yes, even in Once But No Longer Free America.

I'm very happy with the sound quality of allofmp3, for the most part. It's definitely better than iTunes or any competitor. However, they most definitely misrepresent the quality.

All of their CDs are stored in their database as a 384 kb/s LAME encoded mp3, not in a lossless form. So, you're pretty much wasting your time if you use extremely high quality ogg or mpc encoding since the quality can never be higher than the original mp3, and whatever you use will have been reencoded at least once, with whatever associated quality losses that entails.

Allofmp3 is trying to resolve this quality issue, fortunately. Right now, they have about fifty of their most downloaded CDs (White Stripe's Elephant, Outkast's epic album, REM's greatest hits, etc.) available online [allofmp3.com] to be encoded losslessly. You have to check the box that says "use original cd data" and you also have the option of getting SHN, FLAC, or APE encoded music. However, you have to pay twice as much for that priveledge, at which point it would almost be cheaper to buy the cd new. See this interview [museekster.com] with someone working for allofmp3.

The interview also reiterates some of the legality issues, but of course, it's straight from the mouth of allofmp3 which certainly isn't a non-biased source.

This site is 100% legal, for more info see this review

Allofmp3 offers dozens of albums for free. Check this page for a list of the free albums. Download speeds for free stuff is way slower than for the paid ones. Don't be scared of by this.
I am using this service for over a year. Never had a single problem. Can recommend it to anyone.