[AnGer]

I read about a court decision from russia. The court decided that it is illegal to exclude "OOO Internet Audit" (the company behind alltunes.com) from payments per VISA.

Argumentation:
Only the justice can decided wheather or not the law of copyright was respected. Such a decision is beyond the competence of a credit card company or the IFPI.

All I know is that there excist no russian court decision that pointed out that alltunes.com was illegal.

This was surely not the end of the story but perhaps another step in the right direction.

Link: Source (German)

[AnGer]

Same information in English

Alltunes claims win in Russian court

[Nightfly]

Originally Posted by AnGer

Same information in English

Alltunes claims win in Russian court

Excellent post AnGer
thanks for the link and great article..

Welcome,

Nightfly

[viracocha]

Yet another perspective on the IFPI/RIAA/Visa vs. allTunes spectacle (from c*news):


Original article here: http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn...7/07/13/258719

Alltunes.com, the Russian musical resource cut off the Visa banking card payment operation has been acknowledged illegal by the Moscow court. Now Visa is at a loss: on the one hand the foreign resources force it to stop operations with Allofmp3.com and its successors, on the other, the Russian court requires resuming the payment operations.
The Moscow Arbitrary Court has satisfied the suit of Internet-Audit, the Alltunes.com musical server owner, to Rosbank, the Russian agent of Visa, the international payment system and its affiliate United Card Services (UCS), the acquiring center. Alltunes is a computer and handset program, which makes it possible to buy digital music at rather liberal prices ($0.15 per song, $ 2 per album).

The server is not connected with iTunes, a popular foreign musical server, but it is of common roots with Allofmp3.com, closed not long ago. In particular, the resources had a joint clients’ base. Last year at the request of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Visa and Mastercard blocked payments through Allofmp3.com first, then through Alltunes, as they were accused of copyright infringement (the two servers operate on the basis of the license from the Russian societies on collective management without direct talks with the copyright holders). Alltunes did not agree to the mentioned decision and sued in court against the above mentioned Visa agents, who carried out the cut off.

Having tried the case, the court determined the unilateral rejection of the defendant to execute the acquiring contract (credit and debit card payment acceptance) concluded with Alltunes illegal. “The court can try the case on the copyright infringement under the exceptional right holder suit. Neither IFPI, nor Visa are such right holders”, - the judicial decision reads.

Visa that was the third party in the procedure told Reuters the passed judgment would not be appealed against. “We intend to proceed cooperation with the Russian Visa member-banks and hunting for an acceptable decision in relation to such resources as Allоfmp3.com and Alltunes.com, their activities considered ambiguous on the part of the RF legislation”, - the payment system representative explains. IFPI is very determined. “The court decision has not come into force, so we intend to appeal against it, - Igor Pozhitkov, the association Representation Office Head told CNews. – Unfortunately, the first instance court considered only the agreement between Alltunes and Rosbank, not taking into account the presented evidence that the intellectual property was used illegally by the given server owners”.

The e-commerce market participants approve of the court decision. “Having put pressure on Roasbank, Visa behaved incorrectly and infringed the business ethics principals, -Pavel Rublevsky, Chronopay payment system Acting Director outlines. Chronopay was a mediator in accepting payments through Allofmp3.com and Alltunes. – Visa is to cut off only those sites, which abuse law, for example, children porno sites. When there is a conflict of business interests then Visa is to observe neutrality”. However, Chronopay is not going to resume payment through Alltunes. According to the new rules of the mentioned payment system, it services only those musical resources, which have a license from the Federation on collective copyright on-line management. Alltunes has already received two licenses: from the Federation on collective copyright on-line management and its competitor the Russian society on collective copyright management in multimedia and digital networks.

If the court verdict is not repealed then Visa will get into difficulties. On the one hand, the Russian court obliged Visa to resume acceptance of payment through Alltunes, as the RF legislation allows to use the accepted by the server system of cooperation with right holders. On the other hand, the foreign right holders request Visa to cut off payment acceptance through Alltunes, which is actively operating through the internet beyond Russia. “Visa is likely to press Rosbank down under the threat to recall the credit card acquiring right, so that the bank does not resume credit cards payment through Alltunes under any conditions”, - one of the Moscow business lawyers says.

[viracocha]

Original article here: http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8908/Ru...llofmp3.com%27

Since the site is legal under Russian law, Visa told it must resume accepting its credit and debit card payment transactions.

According to CNews, a Russian "IT-Review" site, the Moscow Arbitrary Court has ruled that Visa's decision to terminate its contract with Alltunes, MP3sparks, and AllofMP3 was illegal under Russian law because they operate legally according 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, neither the RIAA nor the IFPI recognize ROM's legitimacy since it collects only a standard 15% licensing fee rather than a negotiated fee as is the case with sites like iTunes and other popular mainstream digital music download sites.

“The court can try the case on the copyright infringement under the exceptional right holder suit. Neither IFPI, nor Visa are such right holders," the judicial decision reads.

Visa says it will not appeal the case against Rosbank, the Russian agent of Visa that actually handles most of Visa's credit and debit card processing in that country.

“We intend to proceed cooperation with the Russian Visa member-banks and hunting for an acceptable decision in relation to such resources as Allоfmp3.com and Alltunes.com, their activities considered ambiguous on the part of the RF legislation," a Visa representative explained.

However, apparently the IFPI hasn't been t so easily swayed by the verdict and intends to appeal the decision.

“The court decision has not come into force, so we intend to appeal against it," said Igor Pozhitkov, an IFPI Representative.

Now AllofMP3.com was taken down under pressure from the Russian Govt due to it being a precondition for its acceptance into the WTO but, sister sites like Alltunes, and MP3sparks are still around, giving the operators a huge legal victory and an important method to receive payments from customers.

But, it could prove to be a big headache for Visa who has been "requested" by copyright holders to cut off payment transactions for the sites.

“Having put pressure on Roasbank, Visa behaved incorrectly and infringed the business ethics principals," said Pavel Rublevsky of Chronopay, a company which helped served as middleman in accepting payments for Allofmp3.com and Alltunes.

"Visa is to cut off only those sites, which abuse law, for example, children porno sites. When there is a conflict of business interests then Visa is to observe neutrality," he continued.

[Cornutopian]

Originally Posted by viracocha

Yet another perspective on the IFPI/RIAA/Visa vs. allTunes spectacle (from c*news):


Original article here: http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn...7/07/13/258719

Interesting. Its a pity that they don't have an actual English speaker to write their articles. That was amost unreadable.

This article reminded me of something that I think might explain some things. It USED to be that people on Alltunes fell into two classes: Those sent to E-centru, who could pay (with mastercard) and those sent to Chronopay, who couldn't pay at all. If you think about what was said in this article, that makes a lot of sense. Visa was cut off, and Chronopay said they would not do business with any entity that is licensed by anyone other than NP-FAIR.

Ok, so E-centru doesn't take visa anymore...at least not for purchases from Alltunes. Chronopay just stopped doing business...until recently. NOW we have seen a couple people who have said that they paid through Alltunes via Chronopay. This has been a mystery, but maybe here is the answer. MP3Sparks is licensed exclusively by NP-FAIR. That is why Chronopay is working with them. Nowadays, Alltunes can be an agent for EITHER AllofMP3 OR MP3Sparks. Perhaps those people who got to Chronopay from Alltunes were MP3Sparks members, not AllofMP3 members. I have accounts on both sites and none of mine can pay through alltunes, so this isn't universal by any means, but maybe the fact that people are NOW coming to Alltunes from Sparks explains why some payments through Alltunes are succeeding through Chronopy.

Confused yet?

[Cornutopian]

Originally Posted by viracocha

Original article here: http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8908/Ru...llofmp3.com%27

"Moscow Arbitrary Court"

I love that. No doubt the name is meant to invoke the idea of arbitration, however that phrase in English means something quite different!

[viracocha]

Original article here: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...ofmp3-com.html

Russian court rules that Visa must process payments for Allofmp3.com

By Nate Anderson | Published: July 16, 2007 - 01:59PM CT

After the IFPI pressured credit card companies not to process payments to AllOfMP3.com, the company sued in a Russian court, claiming that its credit card processing contract had been broken illegally. Now, despite the fact that AllOfMP3 is no more, the company behind the service has apparently won a judgment against Visa's Russian agent.

According to CNews, a Russian technology site, the backers of AllOfMP3 have just won their case against Rosbank, the Russian company that does much of Visa's processing in that country. The court ruled that Visa can only break its contracts with merchants are when they are found guilty of breaking the law; breaking those contracts after talking to business groups like the IFPI was ruled illegal.

The ruling means that Visa may be forced to start processing payments to sites like AllTunes.com and MP3sparks, the AllOfMP3 replacement site, and Visa apparently does not plan to appeal.

Despite the win in court on the credit card payment issue, the people behind AllOfMP3 (and AllTunes and MP3sparks) haven't necessarily secured a long-term victory. The Russian government remains under tremendous pressure to shut down sites like these no matter what names they operate under. With the country's World Trade Organization bid hanging in the balance, it's hard to imagine Russia not taking action eventually.

For now, though, AllTunes still claims to "accept plastic cards" and MP3sparks takes "credit and debit cards." The court case will no doubt make that process even easier.

[Nightfly]

Thank You ...Viracocha for sharing with us your great
informative posts...It is much appreciated

Take care,

Nightfly

[Gethsemane]

Originally Posted by AnGer

... Such a decision is beyond the competence of a credit card company ...

I wish US judges were this logical.