Record labels sue the bejeezus out of AllofMP3.com

Arista, Warner, Capitol, UMG, and other record labels are taking legal action against the long-troubled Russian digital music site AllofMp3.com. Earlier this year, a statement from a US government trade representative pegged the site as being an even higher-volume digital music distributor than iTunes. Tom Zeller at the NYT's "The Lede" blog reports,

Started in 2000, the Web service, which charged just pennies per song and roughly $1 for an album, established its legality by claiming that it complies with Russian copyright laws, and that it distributes royalties through, and is licensed to sell its music by something called the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society.

Of course, that body was not officially recognized outside the country, and the legality of the business plan was hotly debated even inside Russia, but while that was being sorted out, the service grew to become what the United States Commerce Department called the world’s highest-volume distributor of online music.

The service quickly began suffering death by a thousand cuts this year – with Visa and Mastercard refusing to process payments for AllofMp3’s parent company, Mediaservices, earlier this year. Then last month, Russian authorities agreed to move to shut down the music service, after the United States gently suggested that such a clear and constant violation of international copyright standards could hold up Russia’s acceptance in the World Trade Organization.