Correct. I don’t see is said often enough in the press.

AllofMP3 pays royalties to ROMS, Russian equivalent to ASCAP and BMI.

ROMS has tried to write checks to the RIAA. However, because those checks are not for the royalty amount the RIAA SAYS they should be, the RIAA has refused to accept the checks from ROMS.

The bottom line is that the RIAA and maybe the US government if the WTO thing becomes part of this do not want to honor Russian law.

I would like to know why we the people have not banded together to retaliate against the RIAA. What ever happened to good old demonstrating and making headlines like “Citizens Pissed Off At RIAA” or “Politicians Loose Elections Because Of RIAA”.

We all (the posters on all the blogs and forums) talk a good talk. When are WE, the people who pay for the music and movies going to take some action instead of just talking and complaining? Don’t we pay their salaries? Don’t we out number them?

In Europe is less than $10.00 dollars a day (not an hour).

In third world countries min wage can be as low as 1.00 dollar a day.

RIAA allows Mexico to sell legitimate CDs for less than $2.00 dollars within that country. Just imagine: a legitimate CD at $15.00 dollars would equal half a month wages in other countries.

Media services sells CD albums for about $1.00 dollar in Russia. Which is an affordable price to pay at that community. The problem is that Media Services went internet with Allofmp3.com. Customers earning $30.00 a month in 3rd world countries, where customers could and can afford a dollar for an album.

Since the web can be access by Americans that earn $250,000.00 dollars a year; the RIAA believes they are loosing money and revenues otherwise (I call it greed).

Therefore it has to be censored, isolated and eliminated if possible… So that we pay higher royalties than if we were residents of another nation (greed).

1. AllOfMP3 has royalty agreements.
2. Said royalty agreements are twice what RIAA pays their artists.
3. European/American music companies don’t want to accept the royalties from AllOfMP3 since that would legitimise AllOfMP3.

As long as allofmp3.com pays ROMS they are perfectly legal. If Roms then does not attempt to pay who there supposed to pay then shame on roms not allofmp3.com

Chris Taylor
http://www.nerys.com/

Basically, RIAA should stop looking at courts, governments and citizens to solve its problems – refocus those efforts internally… they are rotting from the core —> out and until they take radical steps to stop it from festering further, will continue to waste everybodies time and money.

Jon

So the entire problem isn’t RIAA vs allofmp3.com but inaction by Russia to enforce its own obligations under international treaties and negotiations. RIAA should have NOTHING to do, as the article states, this is all bogus and a big waste of time anyhow, as court decisions in the united states have no power in foreign countries. This is just an exercise in futility to further advertise (and grow market share) for the .com site.

Jon

They need somebody at the RIAA who will make decisions and cut their losses, not sit there, suit anybody who downloads music – if they want to give me the job, I would gladly take it. Right now, they have left pandoras box open for too long and there is no way they can put things back to the way they use to be. This is a huge white elephant which, so far, they have completely ignored for reasons that are beyond me – whether due to ignorance or fear I don’t know. They have control over their music and distribution, time to stick your head up and make some really tough decisions damn it!

Again, I got nothing against the RIAA or the artists etc… my problem is with their inaction towards a problem that will lead to their extinction if they don’t get somebody with balls managing them. Fire the CEO and top management, restructure with people NOT in the music industry (hence, no vested interest in keeping status quo) and put in the best minds in technology and finance… there is absolutely no reason why they can’t tell Apple (etc.) to go screw themselves after their contracts expire or give them a lump sum to get out of them, build their own system which they own and become a dominant player within a few years. Tough… yes… lots of people pissed off… absolutely… but you know what… they would gain respect and still be in existence. I got lots of ideas to get out of this mess. Without content, all the mp3s in the world are useless… this is a STRENGTH but instead, RIAA prefers to cower on their way down to oblivion.

I don’t understand this culture of fear that is like a plague in the executive level of far too many companies nowadays. They don’t need more lawsuits, they need to accept things as they are and build a strong future that couldn’t live without them.

Jon

However, AllOfMp3.com and how the RIAA is trying to get them to shut down is definitely a precendence. There are a lot of shady websites that operate in gray areas of law (i.e. Russia and other Eastern European countries where they have better things to do than enforce piracy laws) and that have a huge user community. The Russian government promised the US government they would do something about it, but my best guess is that another incarnation of the website will then popup somewhere else, maybe Sweden, they don’t seem to be much more successful with handling cases like that there (I am referring to the PirateBay.org incident, I hope everybody remembers that).

I don’t think they will ever see any of the money, though. Getting the website to shut down is one thing, finding a responsible person and making them pay money is a totally different one. I think the Russian government would rather get some bribe money and keep it for themselves and tell the US they couldn’t find anybody.

it would be nice if the riaa operated like a REAL biz and took the costs off the top, then split the remaining with the artist in a proper percent… like 20/80 or 40/60. untill that happens, i concider the riaa thieves, and their law suites unconstitutional.

the riaa is a SALESMAN, and should get SALESMAN percentage, usually 20%.

I expect traffic at this website site to jump, as newscasters create news about money nobody will ever see regarding a company that doesn’t exist in the eyes of US law – US laws have no effect for foreign corporations… somebody knock the RIAA upside the head for realizing they are simply making things worse for them instead of better.

Jon