AllofMP3's Denis Kvasov facing jail time

Here's a message for all the young ones out there: crime doesn't pay, not even for Russian semi-legal music semi-pirates. Or at least that's the way things are looking for Denis Kvasov, former owner of AllofMP3.com. Though the site was shut down earlier this month, Kvasov is still on the hook damages to EMI, Warner and Universal, to the tune of 15 million rubles ($590,715 US), and could face three years in jail as well. The amount seems a bit light, considering the RIAA's $750 to $30,000 per song demands here in the States, but legality of the AllofMP3 service is still in question, since under Russian law the site was ostensibly playing by the rules and paying "copyright fees" to all the right organizations. Of course, consumers don't have to look far to find Alltunes and MP3Sparks, virtual clones of AllofMP3, and Alltunes recently won a court case against a Russian agent of Visa that had cut off payments for the online store, so record labels have to be asking themselves how much progress they've really made in fighting this gray market hydra.

[idl3mind @ Jul 25th 2007 7:14PM]

It's terrible that he may be going to jail for laws that do not exist.

[Electromodo @ Jul 25th 2007 7:31PM]

I'm wondering how RIAA managed to push Russian officials to sue the guy who didn't break Russian laws... MAFIAA may well be on the way to world domination...

[lyl545646 @ Jul 25th 2007 8:14PM]

Perhaps, Vodka?

[MJ @ Jul 25th 2007 8:56PM]

The RIAA didn't push the Russians. The RIAA pushed the US government. In turn, the US government prevented Russian from entering the WTO unless Russia would comply with the RIAA policy and shut Allofmp3.com down.

Is there a man in the bushes??? I DON'T KNOW?!?!

It's all a conspiracy theory.
...and just another way for the U.S. government to come out as the bigger kid on the block.

[ZechAryW @ Jul 25th 2007 7:58PM]

This may be the beginning in Russia...

[Grant @ Jul 25th 2007 8:04PM]

Good ol' Russia,
The new Wild West of the world.

[Tero Lehto @ Jul 25th 2007 8:36PM]

In my opinion AllofMP3.com was the best digital music store ever. There was never proof it was illegal, at least not in all countries.

The last the time I bought DRM protected WMA music from a Finnish digital music store was in 2002. The store was closed shortly after that (because of not enough revenues), and the songs I bought don't work anymore.

Who knows how long songs bought from Apple iTunes or other online stores will actually work? It's a risky deal for consumers.

[angelsvairwaves1 @ Jul 25th 2007 8:42PM]

forever.

[JT_X @ Jul 26th 2007 1:27PM]

iTunes Store purchases are purchases, not rentals, so they will play as long as your computer/iPod works...

[Tero Lehto @ Jul 27th 2007 4:27PM]

I understand songs purchased from iTunes aren't renals. However, I'm not totally certain this songs will necessarily play in some future version of Windows in 2015. My unprotected CDs will probably play in any operating system even then.

I don't even know which format I'll want to use having. Keeping the original CDs, it's easy to extract the music again from CDs, if needed.

Most certainly I won't be buying WMA music again. I already experienced one consumer trap there.

[NeoteriX @ Jul 25th 2007 10:15PM]

In Soviet Russia, MP3s play YOU.

[Will @ Jul 25th 2007 10:21PM]

Once again imperialism reigns in the face of supposedly sovereign territory. For those of us living outside the US, this is a sad harbinger of things to come.

[EDomain @ Jul 25th 2007 10:39PM]

Um, it sucks for those of us IN the U.S. as well. I HATE THE RIAA

[Will @ Jul 26th 2007 12:43PM]

Yeah, I know. It's not like things in Canada are any better with the possibility of the storage media levy being reinstated (though I don't quite understand the logic of how that will slow or stop piracy.. personally, if I'm paying a levy that will be kicked back to artists whenever I buy storage media, I refuse on principle to pay for music).

It seems that North America (supposedly free), is the most draconian of all. Hopefully the DRM-free (and maybe HDCP-free) movement gains traction and effects change down the road. How long do we need to remain controlled by outdated and ignorant legislation?

[Ryan @ Jul 25th 2007 10:46PM]

RIAA, what a bunch of money-hungry bastards. This site I am sure gave more money back to the artists than the RIAA ever will. They are basically saying "hey, we aren't making money off this music-selling site. Let's get them shut down, even if it involves tons of shenanigans!"

[Pinkerton @ Jul 25th 2007 11:13PM]

"This site I am sure gave more money back to the artists than the RIAA ever will."

They paid artists nothing. Google it. BTW, I don't care much for the RIAA either.

[Silver @ Jul 26th 2007 12:37AM]

Ah, AllOfMP3, ripping off *both* the music companies and the consumers dumb enough to buy their pirated wares. Illegal P2P = tantalizing. Illegal P2P people actually *pay* you for? Priceless!

Suckers.

[idude135 @ Jul 26th 2007 1:50AM]

FYI AllofMp3 was the only major source for lossless audio. Its success proved that offering consumers higher bitrates and codecs can be the way to sell music online.

I believe the quality is greater than what you can find in scratch-prone rips you can bittorrent today.

[JSM @ Jul 26th 2007 2:22PM]

So, allofmp3 was P2P?

Ignorant Twit.

[waikikiTed @ Jul 26th 2007 2:07AM]

allofmp3 isn't "really" gone......... they are set up again with a new name, new site. I found that they also kept all of your user info including your remaining balance that you may have had in the account.

[Denise Kvasov @ Jul 26th 2007 6:58AM]

Oh crap!, I knew we should have written that algorithm that take a song and cut it in 5 parts then permute the 1st and 3rd part, then the 2nd and 5th parts and then the now 1st part and 4th part. Then we could have redistributed them on our site and sell the software with the reverse algorithm to our clients.

[Hiro11 @ Jul 26th 2007 10:13AM]

/looks around nervously

Eh, I no speaka da allofmp3.

/quickly exits thread

[AV @ Jul 26th 2007 1:30PM]

Someone needs to make some "Save Allofmp3.com" t-shirts. Seriously, its the greatest website ever. Long live allofmp3.com!

[Marie @ Jul 31st 2007 2:25AM]

There will always be alternatives, even if AllTunes (the last bit of AllOfMP3 to still be around) closes down too: there is a huge list of sites similar to AllOfMP3 at songboom.com that explains the differences between them all with a side-by-side comparison. Although it was sad to see AllOfMP3 go, it's certainly not the end of cheap music!

[alex @ Aug 5th 2007 5:34PM]

Allofmp3 was best, because has no drm and real time encoding - from 192 to 320 kbps I liked "him". But russian mp3 stores it is whole world, about existense you don't know, i write wide articles http://hubpages.com/hub/russianmp3site... about 20 sites like allofmp3.