Music Download Allowed, Russia Considers

The man who is named by the international organizations fighting for the protection of the copyright a music pirate, Denis Kvasov, the owner of the famous AllOfMp3 website, can't be prosecuted for copyright infringement, a Russian judge said. What's most interesting is that numerous international copyright holders criticized the website for distributing their content and moreover, it recorded important amounts of money by selling the music at very low prices.

It all started when the United States authorities pressured the Russian ones to take down the site due to the complaints mentioned above. The officials finally removed the page but the company that owned it has one more similar site with almost the same purpose as AllOfMp3. According to CNN, the Russian authorities said that Denis Kvasov cannot be accused of copyright infringement since he paid the royalties to ROMS, the local organization that collects the taxes for the original content distribution.

However, even if the owner of the website was not found guilty by the Russian judge, the case continues as the international authorities plan to appeal the decision. "We are disappointed with the verdict and will appeal," IFPI regional director Igor Pozhitkov said according to CNN.

In Russia, the software piracy has always been a problem, especially for the international companies which were forced to see their products distributed for very low prices although they did all they could to block the phenomenon. For example, it was reported that hackers were selling almost any piece of software for approximately 3 euros while the program worked just like the original one.

Some time ago, the authorities from all over the world started a powerful initiative to reduce the counterfeited software distribution but, without the support of every country, it is extremely difficult to manage to reach their goal.