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Russian Court Acquits allofmp3.com Owner
An anonymous reader writes "Denis Kvasov, former owner of the music download website allofmp3.com, has been acquitted of violating intellectual property laws in a Moscow court. The court cited insufficient evidence of criminal activity — a question of fact — without touching the question of law of whether the site's activities (had they been proven by the prosecution) actually violated Russian copyright law. The trial's presiding judge said, 'I want to draw particular attention to the sloppy job done by prosecutors in collecting and analyzing the facts.' According to the Moscow Times, though, the allofmp3.com case is far from over. Two more criminal trials are scheduled to take place: one against Vladimir Mamotin, the media director of MediaServices, the parent company of allofmp3.com, and another against the company itself."
Really, I had not expected this!
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Its not the prosecutor's fault- they were taught by RIAA lawyers.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
In Soviet Russia all your mp3's are belong us.
Enlightenment? It's just a flush in the pan.
Sorry, but this is music, therefore the RIAA. And that last "A" stands for America, so they have no (legitimate) influence outside of the US
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
Seems to have less to do with Our Rights Online, and more on Judge's View Of Sloppy Prosecutors. Doesn't really touch the issue at hand.
Sorry, but this is music, therefore the RIAA.
Whoah, whoah.. careful now.
It's bad enough the organization thinks that music == RIAA, don't tell me you've been infected, too!
[DISCLAIMER: This post is a work of satire and should not be misconstrued as a holy text upon which to base a religion.]
Russia needed this suit to proceed only because they did not want it to reflect badly on their chances to get to WTO. Court gave it a try, it was a formality. Case closed, road clear.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
For alleged copyright infringements? Here in the USA this is a civil court matter, not criminal court.
Is the Russian criminal court the proper domain for copyright infringement?
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Sloppy case with badly collected evidence, based on the law that was enacted after alleged crime occurred...
Gee, I am shocked at the verdict!
Just wait for an appeal or for attempts to sue current owners.
Hyperom.com
It's Russia we're talking about here. More corrupt than a NBA Basketball game. The last line of the article should also say "two more criminal trial dismissals are scheduled..."
It's Russia we're talking about here. A country that doesn't have the same rules and regulations that the United States' has and just because the government here (because of pressure from the industry here) is pressuring Russia to go against its own laws, doesn't mean it will happen.
Whether or not what allofmp3 broke American rules does not necessarily mean that it broke Russian rules. As long as those people stay out of the US, they'll be fine. Now, whether Americans broke the rules of the United States by using allofmp3 (and they probably did regardless of the reasons allofmp3 alluded to on their site) is another story.
The Russian prosecution was shoddy because the trial was a sop thrown out to show that Russia wasn't totally ignoring its obligations to enforce international copyright under treaty. Secretly, the Russian government is on the outs with the West and loves that AllofMP3 is a thumb in the eye mainly for the RIAA and American copyright holders. In other words, they're not going to be passionate about prosecuting this case unless it has economic consequences for Russia.
The RIAA is made up of multi-national corporations. You're naive if you don't think RIAA members have their hooks in politicians around the world.
It's Russia we're talking about here. More corrupt than a NBA Basketball game. The last line of the article should also say "two more criminal trial dismissals are scheduled..."
/the law/).
You are assuming that they the guy is guilty, it seems the USA government has brainwashed you with the "guilty until proven innocent" mentality.
It is funny (ironic?) that it is in Russia where this "innocent until proven guilty" has a stand whereas in the USA RIAA and friends keep extorting innocent people when the fact is that it allofmp3 is legal or was legal until the RIAA used their power to extort the Russian government to change their laws (if it was a loophole or whatever else does not matter, it was
Of course I understand you might find it amusing that there are some countries where people have the opportunity to defend themselves from Corporations; sadly this is changing slowly as such Corporations keep corrupting such countries.
To finish this post, thing for a moment, if the Judicial system in Russia is . More corrupt than a NBA Basketball game. then, I would suppose that Sony-BMG, Universal Music, EMI and Warner have CRAPLOADS of more money than the guy running allofmp3 and therefore could pay more to such corrupt people to win such lawsuits and whatnot...
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
And that last "A" stands for America, so they have no (legitimate) influence outside of the US
Huh? That doesn't make sense, it's just part of the name. You can call your organization the American Association for the Advancement of Americans if you wanted, but that doesn't mean you're not allowed to operate your organization elsewhere in the world.
The RIAA are a Trade Group and so have no real 'jurisdiction' ANYWHERE in the context of law enforcement, they only have the ability to legally represent their 'customers' (labels and paying members within the trade), as agreed by their customers. (Jurisdiction being the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters within a defined area of responsibility.)
I don't see anything stopping this organisation conducting business outside the USA though they're are other trade organizations who have taken on that task such as the IFPI to do their bidding internationally. Also many countries appear to have their own Recording Label industry group which appear to have similar roles.
But don't mistake their name implying they only operate inside the USA, and its certainly recognized they influence the IFPI, AND the US Govt who were kind enough to put conditions on the entry of Russia into the WTO with regards to allofmp3.com. That IS international Influence.
Oh, and before I go, I must mention I think the RIAA are a bunch of scum sucking bottom feeders. Trade industry groups should be to the benefit of the people they represent, not their detriment.
It was far from the first ISR post in the thread. This one came at 12:27pm, a full 16 minutes earlier.
d =20250743
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=271453&ci
No less than four other ISR posts were also made before the one you're replying to, making it the sixth (and by that point, extremely redundant).
And that will be the correct verdict if no Russian law has been broken.
Have a look at soylentnews.org for a different view
I've been in a Russian court and in my case, there was no corruption, it was all very straight. The judge seemed to be a very regular guy. I remember thinking he'd be a great guy to toss back some brewskies with.
Now other public officials OTOH. They reminded me of the Ferengy Minister of Finance with the tip jar on the counter.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
It's ironic that "that's the (first/second/third/...) comment, how could it possibly be redundant" has become one of the most thoroughly redundant comments on Slashdot.
Something does not need to have been mentioned before in the same story to be moderated redundant. If it has been so many times before that we can assume that everyone has already heard it(say, "Soviet Russia" jokes without any novel twist), moderate it "redundant" right off the bat.
Brewskie...Ruskie...I see what you did there.
Living With a Nerd
>Russia is keen not to have its own laws be dictated by international agreements (
.... or else.
Most countries are too.
Well, most countries of the G8, the others ones can be bullied, bought and pressured into accepting.
You know, just like the US has been doing to get a get-out-of-International-Court card by having small countries sign on the dotted line
Will the US ever allow its citizen to be tried in an international court? No.
So please let me defecate over any and all international agreements excuses you bring up.
International law is totatlly meaningless since it is subjective, political and randomly enforced.
Under our system of justice, if someone is under duress when they are signing an agreement, it can be rendered void.
International agreements are often signed under threats, blackmail and pressure, I dont see why the same logic doesnt apply.
In Soviet Russia, Allofmp3.com owner acquits YOU!
And you appear to be operating off major pot reserves...
Do you honestly believe a man such as Putin (former KGB, longs for the days of the Cold War) would bend for anyone, let alone the U.S.?
Heck no, I like his logic!
I'm gonna try it out, as a matter of fact. See, I'm in the USA and there's this BP (British Petroleum) filling station down the street.... =P
Incidentally, I'd like to respond to what the GP said about the RIAA having "no (legitimate) influence outside of the US":
Yeah, "legitimate" is the operative word there. They don't have "legitimate" influence inside the US either, but they still have influence.
Just then the floating disembodied head of Colonel Sanders started yelling Everything You Know Is Wrong!-Weird Al
ISR jokes are old. By now (even more so given this story) everyone should have upgraded to "In RIAA America" jokes.
May I note that even Denis himself ain't quite out of hot water yet. Prosecutors indicated they are going to appeal the verdict.
See, under US and most other countries with the adversarial court system (as opposed to inquisitorial, used by Russia and France among others) the prosecution may not appeal questions of fact (i.e. "did the guy do it" but only questions of law "does what the guy did constitute a crime", "does the law he is accused of breaking is constitutional", etc) as well as appeal of sentence.
In Russian criminal law, however, prosecution may in fact appeal fact questions. Which is almost like double jeopardy to me, but at least I'm pretty sure no new evidence may be introduced to a prosecution-initiated appeal, which means that if prosecutors had sloppy proof to begin with, it won't get any better.
This was on CNN yesterday..
It seems the Russian courts aren't any different than the US courts. The judges in the US courts (particularly the higher courts) routinely look for ways to dismiss cases on technicalities like this rather than actually having to decide something. Who would've thought?
I'll give you a hint : its not the civilians of the country such an organisation comes from : any benefit to those civilians is only a side-effect.
Allso : civilians are not mentioned in that TIG another group however is
This sounds to me as: "The RIAA failed to effectively hand enougt cash to presure the judges".
Sorry.
It still so weird to read about the new Russian court system. I always just figured the Russian court system was a guy named Yuri with an AK-47.
In soviet russia the RIAA ... sucks. ... sucks.
In the US the RIAA
Heh. Something isn't right.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
Stealing music so the artists don't see a dime, and paying for the privilege.
In case anybody is wondering (and I was upon reading this), Russians do have strong double jeopardy protections.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
I think this quote sums up the problem getting a judgment against allofmp3. The argument seems to be something like "although we cannot show it is illegal according to russian law, we think it is wrong, and it has to be stopped."
But allofmp3 is legal because of the compulsory license system in the russian copyright law. And such a compulsory copyright license system is legal according to all relevant international treaties, including all the WIPO and WTO treaties.
In the US, a similar compulsory copyright license system is currently being abused by RIAA and SoundExchange to kill internet radio.
Except in this case, there is no extradition treaty between the US and the Russian Federation. Although he could be screwed if he ever enters a country which does.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
My money's on the Russian mafia any day.
You should only have one equal sign there, because two is testing equality :)
From the article:
AllofMP3.com was shut down earlier last month under pressure from the United States, which has made the protection of intellectual property rights a central issue in negotiations over Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.
Access to MP3Sparks.com, a mirror site used by MediaServices, remained blocked Wednesday.
If the pattern goes 9am, 10am, 11am, why isn't noon 12am?
RIAR? heh...
I guess innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply to Slashdot flames.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Russian Court Acquits allofmp3.com Owner = Russia cannot join WTO any soon = russian economy loses billions of dollars in trade every year --> Putin soon realizes IP violators are better off into remotest Siberia and does so, which luckily does not require a court sentence in Russia --> Russia can join WTO then and earn extra billions every year -> Putin will spend that extra on the military to counter the yankee and the chinese army.
the whole case and hysteria it's surrounded by - summed up and dismissed in three paragraphs.
But to answer your question, yes. I clearly understand who the RIAA's customers are, and I stated that In my original post.
No, he said music => RIAA, that is !music || RIAA.
It was intentional, at least in the way I meant it. In this particular case, it could go either way. :)
[DISCLAIMER: This post is a work of satire and should not be misconstrued as a holy text upon which to base a religion.]
Roms should bypass the IFPI and let any artists that wants their money collect it direct from Roms.
IFPI has had its day, it's computerized system reduces its overheads, but those savings don't get passed to the artists and musicians.
>Sorry, but this is music, therefore the RIAA. And that last "A" stands for America, so they have no (legitimate) influence outside of the US
A moron says what?!?