wolfpacker said:
...what might happen in a court of law really isn't the issue.
You're definitely right on that particular point. The question comes down to whether it's worth the RIAA's efforts to bother to pursue such people. Up until now, they've only been going after people who have been
sharing a lot of music.
Going after people who bought music from allofmp3.com would always run the risk that they would go after a person who might have the resources to fight the battle on sheer principle. In a court of law, good faith and fair use would both be valid defences, as long as you were only downloading the music for personal use.
Looking at it another way... If you physically travelled to Russia, bought a bunch of CDs, and it turns out that they were pirated, and then came back and the RIAA found out about it somehow, would they actually bother to pursue it? I don't know the answer to that, but I don't think it's too likely.
And the "good faith" thing? Give me a break.
Well, the analogy here is comparable to going into a mall and finding a small store selling products at reduced, but not unreasonable, prices (and keep in mind that the fair market value for downloadable music has never been well-established, especially when currency adjustments are factored in).
If you were to later discover that the goods you purchased in this store were stolen, you would have a valid defence, in that a "reasonable" person would expect that any store in a legitimate place of business (ie, a mall) would not be selling stolen goods. Sure, you'd probably still have the goods confiscated, but you wouldn't actually be charged for anything.
In the case of allofmp3.com, it operated as a seemingly legitimate "internet business" and had been reviewed, analyzed, and discussed by a number of third parties, many of whom made cautionary comments, but none of whom ever stated outright that the service would be illegal.
In fact, even the RIAA, despite being repeatedly asked for comment by a number of users, made no comment on it. This in itself puts them on shaky ground to suddenly prosecute people for copyright infringment.
Here's a hint for people, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Caveat emptor for certain. However, the vagaries of international law and currency adjustments can make the allofmp3.com site seem believable. If a site based in the U.S. were doing the same thing, I'm sure everybody would have more reason to be suspect. However, if you've ever been to Moscow, you'd realize that the currency and exchange rates over there are so messed up that's $1 US is actually a lot of money.
Meanwhile, the Russian maffia sure is glad to have your paypal or credit card numbers.
While that's a distinct possibility, the possibility still remains that this is a legitimate business that was simply pushing the envelope of copyright law, which has really not been well-defined in Russia yet (keep in mind that fifteen years ago, there was no concept of copyright in Russia at all, unless you consider the fact that everything belonged to the
State to be "copyright"
).
The fact that there have been no reported instances of credit card fraud from customers who have used allofmp3.com (in fact, many reviewers have stated that they have had no issues) would make the "legitimate business" theory more plausible.
