RIAA sues AllofMP3 for 1.65 TRILLION

[Andrew Green]

As part of their claim, the labels are seeking $150,000 USD for each of the 11 million songs that were downloaded from June to October 2006 from the AllofMP3.com website.

Of course AllofMP3 does operate legally under Russian law:

As I previously reported, technically AllOfMP3 does obey the law-Russian law. It pays the standard 15% Russian licensing fee that applies to online music to ROM, the Russian Organization for Multimedia & digital systems. ROM is the Russian equivalent of the RIAA, and according to their website they are "...the national Russian organization providing professional collective management of authors’ property rights and protection of interests of rights holders in cases of use of their works in digital interactive networks, including the Internet." But, unfortunately for AllOfMP3 the RIAA doesn't recognize ROM's legitimacy, perhaps out of fear that it would help legitimize AllOfMP3 and erode their position against it.

All of MP3 replied:

An attempt by the major record labels to use a U.S. court to as part of its campaign against AllofMP3.com is imprudent.

AllofMP3 understands that several US record label companies filed a lawsuit against Mediaservices in New York. This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3.com does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3.com operates legally in Russia.

In the mean time, AllofMP3.com plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws.

Some other Numbers:

GDP for Russia in 2005: $1.576 trillion

The overall approximate retail value of the industry, when combining shipments of physical products to various outlets with the estimated value of various digital revenue streams, was $12.27 billion in 2005, compared to $12.34 billion in 2004 (note: the 2005 figures include some categories not collected in 2004, such as mobile, digital subscription, digital music video, and kiosks). The wholesale value equivalent of the music industry in 2005, when combining both digital and physical revenues, is $7.0 billion.

~ http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html

So, they are looking for more then the GDP of Russia, and more then 20x the wholesale value of the music industry annually. This is of course only June - October, a 5 month period.

 

[Kacey]

Even without considering the other numbers, $150,000/download seems way out of line to me.

 

[Kreth]

I think some judge needs to *****slap these greedy bastards hard for frivolous lawsuits. Maybe then they'll reconsider their ridiculous tactics.

 

[Grenadier]

You're not going to be able to stop people from sharing music files, and even if you hit one particular "legitimate" (yes, I know some of these folks are rather gray area) company, there are countless numbers of less legitimate ones to replace them.

This is a rather useless gesture by the RIAA, and this reminds me of the lawsuits that were filed against the makers of DVDXCopy a few years ago. Even though the lawsuits shut down those folks, that did absolutely nothing to stop the copying of protected DVD's, since no self-respecting "pirate" would use DVDXCopy...

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The RIAA needs to go away. They are little more than bullies seeking collection money.

 

[Cryozombie]

The RIAA needs to go away. They are little more than bullies seeking collection money.

Right? And filing suits against people who are under no obligation to follow our laws??? Give me a freakin break. Could you imagine Organization X in California Suing JoeBobs Barbeque and Bar-pub in Tenessee cuz someone was smoking in the bar in violation of California law, even tho they are in Tenessee? It would be an outrageous claim. So how does holding someone accountable for US law apply when they are in Russia?

What the hell people?

When do we say enough is enough and fight back against these bastards? Can we start a 2 trillion dollar class action suit against RIAA for causing us Mental Anguish, having to worry that we might be the victim of one of their random stormtrooper tactiks lawsuits because we maybe have an open wireless network, and someone could be leeching without our knowlage?

 

[Ping898]

I found this lawsuit hillarious and the worst part of it is, it is all just grand-standing by the RIAA, even if they "win" or get a default judgement, they will never collect a penny of the judgement. You know it, I know and so does the RIAA, but then, they wouldn't get in the paper with the headline of looking for a 1.65 trillion judgement. Besides after strong arming all those grannies and kids for $1500 a pop, we know they have money to burn....

 

[Andrew Green]

Well, if the RIAA was serious about compensation they are looking to the wrong place. All they need to do (in theory) is go to ROMS (the organization that licenses this sort of thing in Russia) and ask for there share. ROMS collects the fees and distributes them to the copyright holders, but they have to come forward and ask.

Of course doing that legitimizes ROMS, which in turn forces them to admit that AllofMP3 and similar businesses are legal.