Good news everybody. Well, possibly less so if you rely on AllofMP3.com to fill your digital music collection. But great news if, like me, you're a fan of digital music lawsuits, because the High Court in London has given the green light to the UK record industry body the BPI to sue Russian download service AllofMP3.com through the British courts, even though said download platform is based in Russia.
As previously reported, the trade body announced its intention to sue the cut price Russian download service at a parliamentary hearing on the digital music sector at the start of last month. AllofMP3.com, which offers downloads from chart topping international artists for just pennies, claims it is operating within Russian copyright laws, but the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry and its partner organisations argue that, even if that is so, it cannot operate legitimately in other countries. The BPI action will aim to stop the company from trading in the UK.
Confirming that the UK High Court had ruled it could hear the case against the Russian company, BPI General Counsel Roz Groome told CMU yesterday: "This is an important step forward in our battle against AllofMP3.com. We have maintained all along that this site is illegal and that the operator of the site is breaking UK law by making sound recordings available to UK based customers without the permission of the copyright owners. Now we will have the opportunity to demonstrate in the UK courts the illegality of this site. The reason AllofMP3.com downloads are cheap, is that neither the artists nor the record companies are being paid. It is only the operator of the site who is benefiting from the sales to UK customers."
While organisations like the BPI fight AllofMP3 in their home courts, pressure is also being put on the Russian authorities by a number of politicians in the West to tighten up their copyright laws so that AllofMP3 would be illegal there too.