Hard-to-kill Allofmp3.com faces lawsuit

We knew it would happen eventually. A group of record labels filed suit against Russian music site AllofMP3.com, the Associated Press reported. The plaintiffs include Arista Records, Warner Bros., Capitol Records and UMG Recordings, the AP reported.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday, alleges that the company is making a profit by selling copyrighted songs without permission. The Moscow-based site charges around $1 for most albums, and has been under fire in the United States for some time, although it claims it is compliant with Russian copyright law.

Russia agreed to shut down the site in November, as part of a deal with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. But as of Thursday the site was still operating.

Blog community response:

"All of this is great marketing for AllofMP3, but it's unclear how long the service will last under this kind of pressure. Whatever happens, though, something else will spring up in its place. At the end of the day, the labels will have to choose between suing a very large percentage of the world's citizens, or else finally coming up with a digital music model that makes sense (meaning, no DRM)."
--TechCrunch

"However, while they may be able to burden each of those companies one by one, apparently the folks at the RIAA still haven't quite realized that every time they shut one of these down, something else pops up instead. In other words, it's a huge waste for them to keep doing this when there are plenty of opportunities for them to embrace providing music in a format and at a price people want."
--Techdirt

"I predict that within 2 years all the major record companies and picture studios will be selling their music and movies online using this very same AllOfMP3.com business model. Any codec you like, whatever bitrate you prefer, no DRM, and at a price point of pennies per MB. That's what the customer wants. That's what customers have always wanted. Choice, value, and to not be treated like dumb criminals."
--Digg.com