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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!
you screw the MPAA!!
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.
In Soviet Russia the copyright infringer sues you!
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.
In Soviet Russia, allofmp3.com belonged to that guy.
What? What?
"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.
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..."
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
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
Wow, the first ISR post in the thread. 3rd top level post. And it's rated redundant...
Who the heck rated this? Screwy McHasnoclue?
I mean, it's a cliche, using a cliche is not in and of itself redundant. The 20+ copies of this post made through out the day further down the thread will be redundant, but this first use is not.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
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
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.
Yes, another example of the weak Russia cow-towing to the mighty American as they have been doing since 1945. That whole "cold war" thing? Russia was too weak and skared of America to turn it into a "hot war". Especially since Russia has much much major reserves of natural gas and oil, they can basically heat anything up, especially a "cold" war.
It is time that Russia just admit that they are the 51st state.
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!"
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!
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?
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.
My money's on the Russian mafia any day.
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?
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.
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.