AllofMP3.com May Hinder Russia Joining WTO

gitana writes "The New York Times is reporting that American trade negotiators may demand the shutdown of AllofMP3.com as a condition of Russia joining the World Trade Organization." From the article: "Music industry officials say AllofMP3, which first came to their attention in 2004, is a large-scale commercial piracy site, and they dismiss its claims of legality. "It is totally unprecedented to have a pirate site operating so openly for so long," said Neil Turkewitz, executive vice president of the Recording Industry Association of America, who is based in Washington ... AllofMP3.com says on the site that it can legally sell to any user based in Russia and warns foreign users to verify the legality within their countries for themselves. The site features a wide selection of Russian music, but is written in English with prices listed in United States dollars."

Comments

Welcome to the Free Market

[Anonymous Coward]

The free market has arrived. Globalization at its finest. Sure US Company Wal-Mart don't care about Chinese slaves making shirts for pennies, why should we give a damn about 80 cents albums for download? The world is sick, welcome to the wild west which we call the internet.

They'll try to lock us down, and take our freedom. But our Russian friends, our fellow Native American brothers, and our Columbian stimulant merchants will continue fighting for what's right. Free markets my friend. Call them black market if you want, but that's just racist :)

i have to say as russian

[skyfi]

we use us dollars in a big amount of places. So it is just called as "Standart Unit" in price lists (mostly in internet and computer hardware shops), in russian (Uslovnaya Edinitsa). So about piracing mp3's, not to much people use such sites (mostly called bydlosites). There are a lot of free sources and home networks

China

[alfs boner]

One way China is ahead of the game is their artists / music industry have given up on CD sales revenue. The artist makes money, or tries to, by selling concert tickets and with marketing tie-ins. In India bootlegs are available the day they are released. It won't come as much of a suprise to \.ers that, as the US moves toward this model, it is corporate profits and support staff who seem to be taking the heat / losing the livelyhood.

As a career sideman, I feel no pain for the old industry passing (especially the lawyers), but the job of recording engineer is going the way of the hatmaker. Actually that analogy breaks down: The job of recording artist and recording engineer are being merged and will not pay very well. There used to be more work for painters, too.

OT: There's a bigger issue here about labor and specialization - the best singer I've ever knew (hits in the 60s) was taking an occasional plumbing job in the 80s and wasn't bitter: The way he put it was: $30 an hour. This while commanding $2-$4k for 20 - 40 oldies shows a year. I didn't quit playing during the 90s net boom and still work a lot now. I also stay buzzword compliant - this year: AJAX(ugh) and psych-folk(cool).

english&dollars

[Keruo]

English is well understood in russia, atleast among computer literate people, and dollars are as valid currency there as rubie. Claiming that only reason www-page using english and dollars as currency and located outside uk/usa just to ease piracy is bad excuse.
Russia has over 30 official languages, so maybe english(although its not one of official ones) is used just for compatibility reasons?
Perhaps dollars are used just to ease the price comparison against iTunes et al?

Re:if it seems too good to be true

[brianosaurus]

Reading you loud and clear!

It is certainly not as important as civil rights. It is certainly not worth bankrupting families with ridiculous lawsuits. And its certainly not worth making the whole world bend over backwards to the whims of a few fatcats with an aging business model in a relatively small industry; compare the content industry to the technology industries that build devices for viewing/listening content, and they're a drop in the bucket. Its like a Flea barking orders at the dog.

With all the real problems in the world, it pisses me TF off watching a bunch of greedy millionaires complaining that they aren't able to screw over their customers like in the old days, suing kids and old ladies, and somehow trying to argue that piracy is robbing them of "potential revenue" that is orders of magnitude more than the total revenue of the entire industry.

Allofmp3.com is the best online music store. If they want to shut it down, all they need to do is bring up a "licensed" site with at least as big a selection, no DRM, and a fair price.

Fuck the WTO. Fuck them right in the ear. The W stands for "World", not "America" (and it definitely does not stand for that misguided retard in Washington...).

World Police at it again

[BestNicksRTaken]

"American trade negotiators may demand the shutdown of AllofMP3.com as a condition of Russia joining the World Trade Organization"

WHAT THE F**K?!

I think America is getting too big for its boots lately, I won't mention Iraq, but they basically told the Swedes to shut down The Pirate Bay and now they think they can blackmail Russia too - and over such an important thing as the WTO?

OK then America, you shut down Microsoft or we'll kick you out of the UN.

Re:desirable scenario

[feijai]

In that way, Russia is far behind the US. Here in the states, business has purchased legilation so that their activites are no longer criminal. Don't worry, you'll catch up soon enough.

This degree of agitprop is so deceitful that it rises above the regular level of BS and does real damage to the conversation. It has to be stopped. Lobbying included, the US's level of graft, legal or illegal is not even remotely as massive as the graft in Russia, China, and most third-world countries. Russia is a true kleptocracy, where oligarchs fall in and out of favor. In China approximately half of the cost of building construction goes to bribery. You have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

Re:mod parent up

[Jeff DeMaagd]

I don't see how oppression helps fight oppression. By not giving musicians their due, both the RIAA and AllOfMP3 are harming the musician's ability to use their skills as they see fit, especially if they see fit to make a career of it. I'm not the person to say that musicians should give their music away for free or at subsistence pricing. I wouldn't want someone taking my work and giving it away for free or a pittance unless I was getting properly paid for it and I don't see that happening.

And no, I am not a musician or in the audio field whatsoever.

MADNESS!!

[Anonymous Coward]

So wait - selling Cold War NBC leftovers doesn't even muster a UN slap on the wrist, but pirating trivial pop culture content is a showstopper?

Please explain to me how it is a recording industry group concerned about its monopoly could hold up a former world superpower, a nation of significant landmass, natural resources, goods, services and consumers, from joining the World Trade Organization?

While the WTO itself is a seperate subject of discussion, what part of reality did world leaders abandon to put such significance on any one single market as to exclude an entire nation's industry?

What a supereme coup these guys and their ilk have pulled off - the world now cow-tow to the notion owning and controlling ideas, instead of not just preserving and protecting, but fostering the creation of new ones. How shameful, and how disappointing, I see so little concern for this insane set of priorities.

Sorry for the bad spelling and words - I only started learning English 3-4 years ago. Ironically I started to learn so I could come to America, after reading my country man Alexis de Tocqueville and listening to my Dad's old college stories of how independant and voiceful Americans where - so why have not Americans been the first country to say no to what is clearly short sighted greed?

Re:I knew it was illegal! WTO let china in

[poena.dare]

Yeah, I'm having trouble understanding why this is so "scandalous."

The WTO has already warned the US about outlawing online gambling, but congress is prepared to do just that. You think the WTO is going to kick the US out? I doubt it.

I guess it's just another NYT jourmammal being sensational. Nothing new here, move along.

Re:Dear US citizen,

[Anonymous Coward]

The worst president ever, corporations and money.

To tell the truth, I'm almost ashamed to live here anymore. It's gotten pretty bad lately.

Re:Cannot legislate morals...

[malraid]

Original bits are scarce. The problem is there is no good economic method yet to reconcile high costs to create with low cost to reproduce. That cost is now cheaper than ever. The thing is that it's now possible to create a professional sounding CD very cheap. Equipment is cheap, the software is cheap. This is specially true for electronic music. The companies behind the RIAA held the funds to enable artists to create music which otherwise they couldn't. Now they can. What's left? Control of the distribution channels. And they're fighting to their last breath to keep them. Artist make little money from CDs (unless it's a huge seller). They make much more on tours and with merchandise. There's a way to pay back to the artist. Look at iTunes. Why does the RIAA want different prices? To keep the control of the distribution channel, and therefore keep control of the artist. the government elected by the people We can narrow it down even more to the US Government. The US has pushed for more and more global copyright. And for longer and longer terms. And for less and less importance to public domain. a reflection of an apathetic voting populace who only cares about which politician is on TV most (if they even vote at all). That's a different problem. I did vote on my last chance (not in the US, but my in Costa Rica). I voted for the Libertarian Party. We lost the the presidential race ending up third but got 6 senators elected (out of a total of 47). The US democracy has huge problems, but that's another topic. I don't agree that copyright is completely bad for society Neither do I. It's a noble idea. Just like Marxism. But taken to extremes it gets to what we have now. Do any DRM system revert to unDRM once copyright exprires and the work goes into public domain ? No. Are any courts interested in hearing about it? No, since it'll probably get extended to "forever less one day" as Jack Valenti wants. artificially raises the number of suppliers That's good, but the RIAA group still controls airways, retail distribution channels, and they want to control Internet distribution channels as well. To put up a larger barrier of entry, to keep new players out. They were just trying to regulate podcasts. So I'm not sure that the number of suppliers is going up as fast as it could/should. Talent on the other hand IS scarse, but that's hardly the issue here. What I mean here is that there are fewer people that can create "original" bits compared to those that can duplicate existing ones. I don't mean that RIAA protected music sucks. I'm willing to pay for music, in the past month I've bought to CDs. One I had already downloaded, but I went and bought it any way ("Clone your lover" by Zeromancer) The other one was the new Tool CD, basically the only band that I blindly buy CDs from nowadays.

Re:Maybe the US...

[zippthorne]

But treaties are also an enumerated power of the combined executive/legislative branch, on equal footing with the constitution. WTO is a kind of treaty in the same way that NATO is. It just doesn't have the word "treaty" in the name.