allofmp3.com Reborn As mp3sparks.com
Labeled as an obstacle to Russia’s entry to the World Trade Organization, allofmp3.com was finally driven out of business, however it has been reborn as mp3sparks.com, much to the chagrin of the record industry.
mp3sparks.com feels almost exactly the same as allofmp3.com with a similar design and legal disclaimers and is owned by Media Services who is running the joint. Interestingly enough, allofmp3.com’s shuttering coincided with talks between Presidents Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush in the United States.
Like allofmp3, mp3sparks.com is run by the Moscow-based company MediaServices, whose director, Vadim Mamotin, has insisted that its websites are 100% legitimate, even though the site offers songs at a tenth the rates of iTunes. Its Russian version, allofmp3.ru, says it is closed for maintenance. Mamotin maintains that by paying royalties to a Russian licensing group, allofmp3.com was in compliance with Russian laws. The Western music industry contends, however, that the licensing group never had the permission of record labels to collect and distribute royalties on their behalf. However, the world’s biggest label claims that allofmp3.com has never paid them a cent.
The Future: Ah, the game of Whack-A-Mole continues, or should we call it Russian Whackette?
