AllofMP3.com Successor Back Online, Taking Credit Card Payments
The apparent successor to dirt-cheap Russian download store AllofMP3.com is back online and promising to take credit card payments following a narrow Russian legal victory. But payment options appeared to be broken, at least for new users, when we attempted checkout Thursday. MP3Sparks.com went down last week, although a related client application called AllTunes remained available for download (WID July 10 p6). MP3Sparks uses a template and an e- commerce checkout system nearly identical to those AllofMP3.com had before it closed, but lists a different parent company, Regiontorg. AllofMP3 was owned by Mediaservices.
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Keeping payment card options available has been Russian Web sites’ main challenge, with the Russian government vowing to close them to get a trade agreement with the U.S. Visa and MasterCard cut off AllofMP3 under recording industry pressure, leading Mediaservices to threaten legal action against the card companies (WID Oct 20 p9). A report at Russian “IT review” site CNews.ru said MP3Sparks, AllofMP3 and AllTunes recently won a Moscow court case against Rosbank Visa, Visa’s agent in Russia, requiring it to process payments for the sites. Visa and MP3Sparks could not be reached for comment. A source close to the case told us the Web sites won due to a “contractual violation” by Rosbank Visa, not a conclusion that the sites operate legally.
The legal victory comes a month before comments are due to the U.S. government on Russia’s implementation of its bilateral intellectual property rights (IPR) agreement, in which Russia promised to shut down infringing sites and named AllofMP3 as a violator. The government is conducting an out- of-cycle review on Russia, named as a problem country for IPR on the U.S. “Special 301” report. Comments to the U.S. Trade Representative are due Aug. 27.
Visitors trying to register at MP3Sparks encounter the site’s explanation of its authority to sell music downloads under a license from the Rightsholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively, or FAIR. The collecting society is called a rogue by the international recording industry, which has fought to shut down it and fellow Russian collecting society ROMS, as well as AllofMP3 and ilk.
But MP3Sparks also warns visitors that they may not download files from the site if its terms “are in conflict with the laws of your country of residence.” An FAQ page goes into great detail on the site’s legal status in the U.S., citing federal law on importation for private use, fair use and the “backup exception,” and warning that MP3Sparks has no direct knowledge that its services are legal in the U.S. The legal justification seems nearly identical to AllofMP3’s in the days that saw it barraged by criticism from Western rights holders (WID Nov 30 p3). MP3Sparks’ terms require users to load accounts with at least $25 to start buying on the site. But once registered, users are told they must prepay only $10, which “will let you download about 5 full albums or more than 50 songs.” However, upon our first attempt to purchase tracks, the site asked for a $25 minimum payment.