A group of record companies including Arista Records, Warner Bros, Capitol and UMG recordings has debuted legal action against Moscow-based Mediaservices, the operator of Allofmp3.com. Allofmp3.com is a website that enables the download of songs and albums in MP3 format. The prices featured by Allofmp3.com range from a few cents per song to no more than 1 dollar for a compete album.

"The defendant's entire business... amounts to nothing more than a massive infringement of plaintiffs' exclusive rights under the Copyright Act and New York law," reads an excerpt of the papers filed in the legal action. Allofmp3.com has been already sued by the British Phonographic Industry that initiated legal action representing a suite of record labels based in the United Kingdom.

The group of record companies involved in the lawsuit alleged that Allofmp3.com does not have permission to sell copyrighted materials. However, Allofmp3.com revealed that a Russian licensing body has been accepting royalties for their music commerce.

The Russian licensing body, referred to as Roms, has also delivered Allofmp3.com the license to operate. When confronted with the lawsuit, Roms explained that under the Russian constitution it can license copyrighted content without involving in any manner the copyright holders.

"Allofmp3.com's activity is quite legitimate," stated Oleg Nezus, Roms general director. "The opinion of foreign copyright owners is just that - their opinion."