AllofMp3 Victory Only Covers Russia

It seems AllofMP3's recent legal victory over Rosbank, which meant that the Visa processing company did not have the right to break its contract with AllofMP3 only covers users accessing the site from Russia.

There’s been a lot of buzz coming out of Russia lately about Media Services, the company behind AllofMP3 and its heir, AllTunes.

The buzz is circulating around a so-called victory for the company, where Media Services won their court case against the Russian bank Rosbank. Rosbank handles Visa’s transactions, which of course was pressured by the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) to cut off Media Services from processing credit card transactions.

There’s little doubt the inability to process credit card payments has devastated the AllofMP3.com empire. What was once the pinnacle of iTunes alternatives quickly found itself with no way to process payments. With no mainstream method for customers to pay for downloads, Media Services would have to act quickly or face extinction.

So Media Services took Rosbank to court, and actually won their case. The judge found that since Media Services had not actually been convicted of a crime, there’s no basis for Rosbank or Visa to cut the MP3 site offline.

Great news for the consumer…just hop over to AllTunes.com, log in, and submit the necessary credit card information and start purchasing tracks, right?

“Payment temporarily unavailable. Unfortunately, the payment could not be processed currently.”

That’s the message a visitor to AllTunes receives when trying to refill his or her subscription via credit card. And if we’re to believe the latest information from the IFPI, it appears it’s going to stay that way for a long, long time.

Slyck.com got in touch with the IFPI, who informed us that AllTune’s victory in Russia was narrow in scope, and doesn’t apply to international customers.

This appears to be valid considering that if this was true global victory, Media Services would likely waste no times reinstituting their credit card payment system. Perhaps more ominously, the IFPI doesn’t conceal the fact that Media Services and AllTunes are high on the priority list and will be vigorously pursued.

"This decision is taken on a narrow point of Russian contract law and does not in any way legalise AllTunes which is flagrantly violating copyright laws in Russia and elsewhere.

It will have no real impact internationally, as Visa already has policies in place and is committed to ensuring that illegal transactions do not take place on its networks. Meanwhile the criminal actions already brought in Russia against those behind AllTunes are continuing.”

While Russians might soon be able to enjoy AllTunes, it appears that will be the extent of Media Services’ market. So Media Services may have won their case in Russia, but the chances of that legal victory becoming tangible for the remnants of the AllofMP3 market are quickly looking like nil.