"Industry experts, however, sound skeptical of this initiative. “The Federation is no different from the Multimedia and Digital Networks Society – it also has nothing to do with rightholders,” Igor Pozhitkov, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s Russian officeRussia's music copyright laws are puzzling...
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Chrono Wants Russian Music Sites To Obtain License
Chronopay, the payments services provider of 95% of the Russian Music Sites, wants the sites to get a license from Russia's copyright authorities.
Free Russian Music Sites
I have just added a ton of free Russian Music Sites to my Squidoo Lens. In addition to the slightly more legitimate Russian sites that charge, there are a lot of these free mp3 download sites that, I guess, sell advertising to stay in business. I'm not sure how much longer they'll last...
I added them without investigating each and every site, so some of them might not work and might not even be free. I found about most of them from a post on a Russian blog. If you use them, please comment on the lens or forum. And if you find any good sites, then please add them (if they aren't already there) to my plexo (digg-like-thing) on my lens. Most of the sites are only in Russian and are hard to navigate. I'm not sure if they're in fact better options to torrents, file-sharing, etc. Help me find the useful ones.
I added them without investigating each and every site, so some of them might not work and might not even be free. I found about most of them from a post on a Russian blog. If you use them, please comment on the lens or forum. And if you find any good sites, then please add them (if they aren't already there) to my plexo (digg-like-thing) on my lens. Most of the sites are only in Russian and are hard to navigate. I'm not sure if they're in fact better options to torrents, file-sharing, etc. Help me find the useful ones.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Allofmp3 "Shutdown" Dates
An incomplete history of times when Allofmp3 was thought be doomed.
Feb 22, 2005: "Russian music site targeted by law enforcement"
May 15, 2006: "Allofmp3 Down - For Good?"
May 30, 2006: "Allofmp3.com running out of time?"
Jul 3, 2006: "BPI gets go-ahead to sue MP3 Site"
Aug 18, 2006: "AllofMp3 suffers mysterious downtime"
Oct 19, 2006: "Credit card firms cut off Allofmp3"
Sept 15, 2006: "Anti-piracy law could shut down Russian music download site"
Nov 28, 2006: "Russia Agrees To US Request To Shut Down AllofMP3"
Dec 21, 2006: "Allofmp3 sued for 1.65 Trillion"
Feb 2, 2007: "Russia to legalize digital content market"
Pretty resilient. But how long will it last? The Nov 28 and Feb 2 articles may actually signal the end.
Feb 22, 2005: "Russian music site targeted by law enforcement"
May 15, 2006: "Allofmp3 Down - For Good?"
May 30, 2006: "Allofmp3.com running out of time?"
Jul 3, 2006: "BPI gets go-ahead to sue MP3 Site"
Aug 18, 2006: "AllofMp3 suffers mysterious downtime"
Oct 19, 2006: "Credit card firms cut off Allofmp3"
Sept 15, 2006: "Anti-piracy law could shut down Russian music download site"
Nov 28, 2006: "Russia Agrees To US Request To Shut Down AllofMP3"
Dec 21, 2006: "Allofmp3 sued for 1.65 Trillion"
Feb 2, 2007: "Russia to legalize digital content market"
Pretty resilient. But how long will it last? The Nov 28 and Feb 2 articles may actually signal the end.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
No One Steals 45s
In my post, titled 'How to stop music "stealing" ?', I received two comments:
1) "I don't consider paying for music as stealing"
2) "its legal according to Berne convention administered by the WIPO and WTO requirements."
These responses miss the point of my post. There are moral and legal reasons that obtaining music from Russian entrepreneurs shouldn't be considered stealing. I wasn't arguing whether downloading music from the Russian sites or file-sharing networks is good or bad or even against the law. (I had the word stealing in quotes.)
I was arguing that the music industry could compete more effectively with the Russian Music Sites and file sharing by improving their service. Instead of focusing on threatening the file-sharers with legal trouble, they should give the file-sharers a reason not to use other people’s services.
I wrote:
“1) Online music stores can attach almost everything they want to downloads. Album or song purchases should be attached to tour schedules, artist stories and biographies, videos, games, screensavers, drawings, desktop backgrounds, coupons, anything of interest.
2) Songs files can be made for more than listening. Fans like to interact with their music. What if you could download a song file, and then sing karaoke with it, play the guitar solo from it in Guitar Hero, dance to it in DDR, create your own music video for it, remix it and resell your reproductions. All of these abilities in a single interface.”
The record industry targets file-sharers and the Russian sites because they view them as a threat to their business. But I believe they are making a mistake in allowing their legal team to be their main tool against people swapping tunes. They can and should redefine what selling music means, and produce something that cannot be found elsewhere.
Currently, the record industry offers a worse experience than their Russians competitors. They continue to act as if the Internet is a threat, when it’s really an opportunity.
1) "I don't consider paying for music as stealing"
2) "its legal according to Berne convention administered by the WIPO and WTO requirements."
These responses miss the point of my post. There are moral and legal reasons that obtaining music from Russian entrepreneurs shouldn't be considered stealing. I wasn't arguing whether downloading music from the Russian sites or file-sharing networks is good or bad or even against the law. (I had the word stealing in quotes.)
I was arguing that the music industry could compete more effectively with the Russian Music Sites and file sharing by improving their service. Instead of focusing on threatening the file-sharers with legal trouble, they should give the file-sharers a reason not to use other people’s services.
I wrote:
“1) Online music stores can attach almost everything they want to downloads. Album or song purchases should be attached to tour schedules, artist stories and biographies, videos, games, screensavers, drawings, desktop backgrounds, coupons, anything of interest.
2) Songs files can be made for more than listening. Fans like to interact with their music. What if you could download a song file, and then sing karaoke with it, play the guitar solo from it in Guitar Hero, dance to it in DDR, create your own music video for it, remix it and resell your reproductions. All of these abilities in a single interface.”
The record industry targets file-sharers and the Russian sites because they view them as a threat to their business. But I believe they are making a mistake in allowing their legal team to be their main tool against people swapping tunes. They can and should redefine what selling music means, and produce something that cannot be found elsewhere.
Currently, the record industry offers a worse experience than their Russians competitors. They continue to act as if the Internet is a threat, when it’s really an opportunity.
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