A former head of AllOfMp3.com, an online music download service, was acquitted of copyright violation by a Moscow court last week, while other litigations against the company are still in progress. It is still doubtful if the case could have a major impact on Internet piracy in the country.
The ruling in favor of Denis Kvasov, former general director of the company Mediaservices which owns the site AllOfMp3.com, has definitely pleased him and his colleagues. And it has definitely upset the Moscow office of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which was among the most ardent attackers of the download service. But it has probably also left many of the company's former customers indifferent.
The online service was shut down several weeks ago, but for many months before that, hundreds of registered users, were unable to put cash on their accounts, as credit card systems and companies that provide online payment services had broken their ties with the controversial Web site out of fear of being involved in the litigation. Now the company's customers are left wondering, why, if the company's former head has been acquitted - as the court didn't find evidence against him persuasive enough - there is no word about re-opening the service.
More questions arise if you look closely into the case. Why was the crackdown directed particularly against AllOfMp3.com? There are several other companies in Russia that provide online music download services. Although some of them charge substantially more than AllOfMp3.com did, all claimed to operate 100-percent legally and to pay all applicable fees to copyright holders.
Most likely, the service got too much exposure because, unlike most of its competitors here, it actively targeted not only domestic customers, but also Westerners, who were lured by much lower prices than, say, at iTunes. The Web site was even mentioned some time ago during negotiations about Russia's WTO entry as an example of numerous copyright violations in the country, and the closing down of AllOfMp3 was, allegedly, one of demands set by WTO in the area of copyright protection.
A lot has been said about the fact that piracy in intellectual property has much to do with differences in living standards of countries. What in the most developed nations is a fair price for a DVD or a CD, may be something an average citizen of Russia cannot afford. Those companies which understand this and have a reasonable pricing policy for non-Western markets have already profited on that, as pirates cannot compete with a serious company that sells its CDs at a reasonable price.
On the other hand, those, who remain stringent, are likely to be hit more by piracy. The same rule should apply to mp3 download services, and download fees should depend upon the particular country in which an mp3 file is downloaded. There are no technical obstacles to that as it is always possible to determine, in which country a particular internet user is. It could be much more difficult, though, for a download service provider, to sign agreements with all copyright owners of material they offer for download. Organizations that claimed to have collective copyright ownership turned out to be fraud.
Meanwhile, the case of AllOfMp3.com is far from closed. The recent court decision will be appealed, and a few other criminal cases involving the company are pending.
By Vladimir Kozlov
