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Illegal Russian Music Site Closes. Or Did it?

by Tim Stevens on July 3, 2007 at 02:01 PM

Allofmp3.com Shut DownFor decades during the Cold War, the Russians were considered a threat to our peaceful way of life (Source: 'Rocky IV'). More recently they've been a threat to our copyright law, though that's all changed today with the closing of the Russia-based allofmp3.com, one of the Internet's biggest and most widely used repositories of illegal music.

Since 2000, Internet users have been able to quickly, easily, and cheaply download just about every album known to man through the Russian download service. Tracks were usually around 10 cents each (compared to 99 cents or more at iTunes) and were available in a variety of qualities and file types, and without copy protection. It was great, but was unfortunately also totally illegal everywhere outside of Russia (where it was questionably legal), since the record artists who created the tracks and the publishers who produced them never saw a cent.

Despite numerous complaints from the RIAA and U.S. Government, the site stayed up. However, when threats about preventing Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization were made, the site suddenly went offline.

So, victory for the RIAA and American copyright law? Not quite. A new service, MP3Sparks.com has been launched, which mysteriously accepts your allofmp3.com login info and account credits. Loopholes ... VERY NICE! (in our best Borat voice.)

From Boingboing

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Tags: Allofmp3.com, iTunes

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