Riaa is sueing Allofmp3

Ding Ding Ding, welcome the the next round of this amazing fight. In the right corner we have the underdog, a Russian mp3 website that offers what customers apparently want: MP3 files without DRM and different quality levels (bitrates) at low costs.

AllofMp3 is a legal company under Russian law. In the opposite corner is the mighty RIAA, an organization living int he past that try to hold progress by suing its customers and the desire to block access to AllofMp3. Globalization is a one-way street that only companies may use of according to the RIAA, but not for people of a country who want to take advantage of exactly the same benefits that companies get: cheaper prices.

So, the RIAA decided to sue Allofmp3 for the enormous sum of 1.65 trillion dollars. Yes that is right guys, it is not million, not billion - it is trillion. How did they come up with this amount of money? They took a look at the sales of allofmp3 and came up with the figure of 11 million mp3 sales in about 6 months. They then decided to multiply this number by 150000 (which is the maximum amount chargeable by law) and came up with the final sum that they are suing the site for.

Will the RIAA finally be able to knockout the underdog? Even if the RIAA wins this case it won't have an effect on the Russian mp3 site because it would only affect it if it would run its business from the United States. As long as they don't come stateside they are probably on the safe side.

I personally think that is is ridiculous to demand $150000 for every single song that has been downloaded from the allofmp3 website. The proportions get way out of line here. For one, the site is legally operating in Russia. Two, the songs get downloaded just once but not shared.

Update: AllofMp3 is out of business. There are however dozens of other shops that have taken over and are offering more or less what the service offered right now.