Though the claim may be exaggerated, there’s little doubt that the unlicensed site is growing in popularity among British downloaders. After six years in business it is still distributing entire catalogues, including bootlegs and live sessions, from artists such as the Beatles who have never authorised music for digital sale.
In July, foreign secretary Margaret Beckett was asked to encourage Russian politicians to crack down on AllofMP3.com. Prior to that a Parliamentary Select Committee heard how the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) intended to take legal action against the site.
It’s extremely doubtful, however, that the BPI can achieve much through the UK courts, unless the company behind AllofMP3 (Mediaservices) is found to have any direct business interests within the UK.
Tough though it may be to admit, AllofMP3 has cornered a part of the market and maintained a consistenly high profile. All it needs to do now is sort out how to pay creators and rightsholders.
Alliance international perspective
AllofMP3.com claims to be operating legally under a licence from a Russian society, ROMS. This society is not affiliated to the MCPS-PRS Alliance and exploits a loophole in Russian copyright law to claim it represents repertoire when it does not. The ‘official’ Russian society (RAO) will be able to take legal action against AllofMP3.com following an amendment to Russian copyright law on 1 September 2006.
This article originally appeared in M21, published September 2006