With the September 1 date behind us and dirt cheap music still available on the Russian site AllofMP3.com, the question arises as to how far the Russian authorities will be willing to deal with the site. AllofMP3.com announced a few months ago that it would act in accordance with the new copyright law effective September 1, effective this month, closing the loophole that the site was allowed to use until last month. The new law was already approved in 2004; the two-year interval was supposed to give MP3 site owners the opportunity to conclude licensing contracts with rights holders – or risk up to five years in prison. A glance at AllofMP3.com’s offerings and prices quickly shows that the site is not there yet – after all, prices a tenth of the price level of iTunes (which the labels are already fussing about) imply royalties that the music industry wouldn’t. accept before Easter and Pentecost fall on the same day.
Earlier, US negotiators in the WTO membership talks for Russia already threatened that Moscow would have to tackle AllofMP3.com if it wanted to join the trade organization. Of course, that only works as long as Russia is eager to become a member. Recently, however, clear that the Russians and the Americans are deadlocked in their discussions on agricultural trade, which seems to have overshadowed the previous stumbling block of intellectual property. The disagreement is said to run so deep that Russia threatens to halt WTO negotiations. That seems to make it unlikely that Moscow will have the enforcement of the new copyright law, and thus tackling AllofMP3.com, very high on its list of priorities.