Anti-piracy law could shut Russian music download site

Internet downloads
Photograph: Roger Tooth

It's slick, easy to use and, most of all, ridiculously cheap. But anti-piracy groups are hoping a new law that took effect this month, and increasing pressure from the US, will finally shut down, a notorious Russian website that has become the second-most popular destination for music downloaders in the UK.

Allofmp3 offers song downloads for as little as 5p and is currently selling Bob Dylan's Modern Times, for £1.33. This year the site surpassed Napster to become Britain's second-most popular music download site after iTunes, according to IXN, a data research company.

Industry representatives say Allofmp3 can only sell music so cheaply because it is not paying royalties to recording companies or artists.

" are the most arrogant and aggressive copyright violators that we know of," said Igor Pozhitkov, the Russian director of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a group that represents recording giants such as Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI.

In July, the British Phonographic Institute won a court ruling allowing it to sue Allofmp3 in the British High Court, but it remains unclear how any UK ruling would be enforced in Russia.

The new Russian law, which was passed two years ago but only took effect on September 1, gives works distributed on the internet the same protections as those published in traditional formats.

Two previous criminal cases brought against directors of Allofmp3 have languished in the Russian courts and Mr Pozhitkov said he hopes the new law means "law enforcement agencies can finally start doing something".

Allofmp3 insists it is legal and says it has nothing to fear from the new law. The site says it is licensed by and pays royalties to the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems, or ROMS, which, under a loophole in Russian law, claims it is allowed to hand out distribution rights on behalf of copyright holders without their permission.

Allofmp3 also says it cannot be held accountable for actions that may be illegal in other countries. "What we're doing may not be 100% up to Western business ethics, but no one has ever proven that we are operating illegally," said Ilya Levitov, a spokesman for MediaServices, the company that own and runs

But pressure is building to crack down on the site, with US trade negotiators calling it a key issue in Russia's bid for membership in the World Trade Organization. Russia hopes to conclude WTO talks with the US, the last major country whose approval it needs to join the global trade group, by the end of the year.

"We have made clear to Russia that improved protection for intellectual property is critical to its joining the WTO and we have specifically raised our concerns with," deputy US trade representative Karan Bhatia said earlier this month.