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Originally Posted by AV22
I have started downloading from http://www.allofmp3.com/
you have to pay to download music...seems to be quite reasonably priced and safe...
has anyone used it? is it safe? any feedback about this website? |
I've been using it on and off for years - certainly since long before they
doubled their prices to 2c/MB
The skinny seems to be that they are exploiting a loophole in Russian law. They are - or were - classified as a broadcast service, rather than a distribution service, and could therefore take advantage of compulsary licensing designed to reduce the power the music industry has over broadcasters. The theory was that you were
not downloading a piece of music - they were broadcasting it to you and you were making a local copy of it, fair use, etc. etc.
As far as I know, this is technically legal in Russia. There have been stories of them having been investigated by the police, who found that while what they were doing was outside the intent of the law, it was close enough that they couldn't prosecute. The further point, in the US at least, is that the laws only covered the importation of physical media containing music - since an MP3 is not a physical piece of media, it isn't covered, and it is therefore legal - in theory - to import it.
In practice, it's obviously not legal, in the commonly-accepted sense. It does, however, seem to be safe and have a decent service with a decent amount of choice - you pays your money and you takes it :-)