Just curious if anyone has downloaded or checked out allofmp3.com. Everything I have read makes it seem to be completely legit. There was even a reference to it in my popular science magazine this month which listed them as a legit site. I just joined a few weeks ago and so far have not had any problems, just wanted to get a little feedback and see what everyone else thinks?
http://www.allofmp3.com/
Here's the dilly on AllofMP3. Cool, yes. Legal, only sort of, and only in Russia. Basically, AllofMP3 is legal according to Russian copyright laws. Here is an applicable quote:
Russian copyright legislation allows phonograms to be performed publicly without the authorization of the copyright owner for broadcasting and cable transmission. (Article 39) The Internet could be deemed to fall under this exemption. The copyrights involved have to be paid to a collecting society.
Which goes a long way towards explaining the price. In the good old former Soviet Union, selling MP3s on the Net cost the same as playing them on the radio (which doesn't sound that ridiculous, if you try to think about the logic behind it without thinking about the US RIAA hooplah for a moment).
Anyway, US (and EU) laws are 180 degrees from this idea, and I would bet that the RIAA (when they see fit) will come down HARD on this, whether it's technically legal or not.
Not to mention that many of the MP3s on the site come from users of the site having uploaded them. Don't know if it still works this way, but at one point you could upload MP3s to the pool and get credit for it. Thus, some of the MP3s are significantly lower quality (especially afer their online transcoding which is their TM).
Legally, i don't think this is far from Soulseek or Gnutella unless you live in Russia. And I bet the labels/artist get about as much money as if you had just grabbed the songs off a friend. Up to you whether you like that idea or not :)
If you're still worried there is a mountain of stuff on AllofMP3 out there.
