AllOfMP3

AllOfMP3

Launch date	2000
Platform(s)	Platform Independent
Availability	Russia,legal status in other locations is questionable.
Website	allofmp3.ru[usurped] AllTunes allofmp3

AllOfMP3,MP3SparksandMemphisMembersare brands ofonline music storethat were operated by Mediaservices, Inc., a company founded in 2000 inMoscow,Russia.The stores formerly sold music encoded in standard,non-protectedaudio formats at a significantly lower cost than other online music stores. In 2008, the original AllOfMp3 site was replaced by a blog.

The company has been plagued bylegal issuesfor some time due to accusations, mainly from therecord industry,that they are operating illegally and engaging inmusic piracy.

Revenue

Run by the Moscow company MediaServices, AllOfMP3 had an estimated revenue of US$30 million in 2006.According to theIFPIand various other label representatives the company has never transferred money to any (western) label. AllofMP3 claims to have offered settlements to IFPI, which AllOfMP3 claims IFPI refused to accept.

Legal issues

AllOfMP3's legality is controversial. It is licensed in Russia by theRussian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems,a licence similar to agreements held by Russianradio stations.AllOfMP3 states that this agreement allows it to distribute music legally from all artists and all labels. This is disputed by most major record labels, which generally do not recognize ROMS or believe that it has the authority to distribute their works. AllOfMP3 makes no claims as to its legality outside of Russia.However it is accessible to visitors in all countries.

In 2005, Moscow authorities began investigating the site as a result of a formal complaint from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), who accused the site of "large-scale copyright infringement".

On June 1, 2006,The New York Timesreported that US trade negotiators have warned Russia that the continued existence of AllOfMP3 could jeopardize Russia's entry into theWorld Trade Organization.This was reiterated by theUnited States Trade RepresentativeSusan Schwabin remarks to the USChamber of Commerceon September 28, 2006.She later told reporters that "I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone's intellectual property rights."

Pressure from the IFPI resulted in AllOfMP3 being blocked by the DanishISP,Tele2in October 2006.

On December 18, 2006,theRIAA,on behalf ofEMI,Sony BMG,Universal Music Group,andWarner Music Groupfiled a US$1.65 trillion lawsuit against the site. That equates to US$150,000 for each of 11 million songs downloaded between June and October 2006, and exceeds Russia's entire GDP.$150,000 is the statutory limit for copyright infringement awards in the United States.Allofmp3 responded to the lawsuit saying"AllofMP3 understands that several U.S. record label companies filed a lawsuit against Media Services in New York. This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3 does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3 operates legally in Russia. In the meantime, AllofMP3 plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws.".

In May 2007, UK police arrested a 25-year-old man on fraud charges for selling allofmp3 vouchers on sites such aseBayand allofmp3vouchers.co.uk. The man was reported to be funneling money from the sale of these vouchers back to the owners of the site in Russia.A statement in relation to this alleged transfer of funds to Russia was made by theBritish Phonographic Industrychairman.

In 2007 Allofmp3 was banned from service by itspayment processorChronoPay.

In an interview with p2pnet, a MediaServices representative said "It is disappointing that United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab completely and deliberately mischaracterized AllofMP3. Furthermore, it is irresponsible to use AllofMP3 as a negotiating instrument in an attempt to extract concessions from Russia in return for US support for accession to the World Trade Organization".

In July 2007, a Moscow court ruled thatVisa's decision to cut off payments to allTunes was illegal.

In August 2007, Denis Kvasov, head of the company which owned AllofMP3, was acquitted of all charges stemming from copyright infringement prosecution. The prosecution was seen as a test case of Russia's commitment to fightingpiracy,and was brought afterEMI,NBC UniversalandTime Warnerlobbied for such prosecution.

In January 2008The Registerreported that MP3Sparks and its associated web sites were being hosted (since December 2007) byAbdAllah Internet,a Turkish web hosting service which allegedly provides safe harbour forspamandmalwareoperations as well as having strong links to theRussian Business Network.For this reason access to the AbdAllah network is blocked by some ISPs, including all UK members ofLINX,therefore blocking access to MP3Sparks as well.

On May 20, 2008, theRIAAdropped all copyright infringement charges against AllOfMP3.

Closure of AllOfMP3

In June 2007, AllOfMP3 announced on their site that they were "closed for maintenance", while Times Online reported that an unnamed person claiming to be an ex-employee told them it was closed down following pressure from theRussian government.MP3Sparks, however, remained available,as did the AllTunes download service.

Following the acquittal of Denis Kvasov by a Moscow court in August 2007, a brief message was posted at the site's blog, stating "The service will be resumed in the foreseeable future".

About the services

The sites offerRussianandEnglishuser interfaces. All functions, except for the buying of songs and full length song previews, are available to unregistered users (and full length preview of songs is restricted to individuals who have spent a total of $50 or more on the website). Registration is free. The store maintains an account balance for each user; while a user's account has a positive balance, they can continue downloading music. To do so, the user selects the files for download from the store's catalog.

Pricing model

Unlike some US-based music stores such asApple'siTunes Store,MediaServices' sites charge for the volume of data downloaded, not for individual songs.

This price is often reduced by a complicated system of discounts based on cumulative usage, promotions, and type of payment.

Payment methods

The sites operate using a pre-paid balance method. Users fund their account using acreditordebit card,in increments of US$10 or more.

However, action taken in late 2006 byVisaandMasterCardmade it impossible for users to fund their accounts at the main AllOfMP3 site.

Users outside UK and US can also pay using a variety of credit cards at ChronoPay processor. ChronoPay had announced on March 20, 2007, that they would no longer be processing payments from online Russian music stores that only hold aROMSlicense (e.g. AllOfMP3), but this does not apply to MP3Sparks which has anNP FAIRlicense.

Between April and June 2007, it had become difficult for users to fund their AllOfMP3 accounts themselves, and a number of users and sites began selling AllOfMP3 gift vouchers on the Internet. However, in May 2007 a man who had been selling vouchers was arrested in London,and this led many other voucher sellers to shut down their operations.

Download formats

AllOfMP3 (and now MP3Sparks) allows users to choose from a variety ofaudio codecsfor audio files. Lossy formats are offered inconstant bitratesup to 320 kbit/s orvariable bitratesup to maximum quality in the following formats:

• MP3
• WMA
• Ogg Vorbis
• MPEG4-AAC
• MPC

Select albums are also being made available inLossless audio codecsin the following formats:

• FLAC
• PCM
• Monkey's Audio
• OptimFROG
• WMA Lossless

Most music is encoded straight from source, which is dubbedOnline Encoding Exclusive,so gapless albums could providegapless playback,unlike most other music services. There is no extra charge for using the Online Encoding Exclusive service. The user sets the codec parameters, including the desired bitrate, allowing for superior quality over other music download services such as iTunes and Napster.

Downloaded files do not containdigital rights managementinformation, allowing unrestricted use between multiple computers anddigital audio players.This differentiates AllOfMP3 from many other music download services, which limit the use of the music the user may purchase and the platforms on which it may be played.

The websites also offer free, full album previews, streamed at a bitrate of 24 kilobits per second (roughly equivalent to analogtelephoneaudio quality). Registered users who have spent less than $50 have access to 90 second samples, and unregistered users have access to 30 second samples.

Music for Masses

In late 2006, AllOfMP3 experimented with a feature called "Music for Masses" which allowed users to downloadDRM-protected music for free.The files were encoded in a proprietary MP3 format (.mp3x) that could only be played in the Music for Masses player, and could not be transferred to a portable media device. However, the DRM protection was cracked within a week.Although AllOfMP3 released a compulsory update to the player software which rendered the original crack unusable, they eventually removed the service in December 2006.

References

• US CODE: Title 17,402. Notice of copyright: Phonorecords of sound recordings
• US CODE: Title 17,602. Infringing importation of copies or phonorecords
• UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48), Section 22. Secondary infringement: importing infringing copy

External links

• AllOfMP3.ruArchived2007-07-07 at theWayback MachineAllOfMP3 homepage.