Tiny Mix Tapes

Monday Night Raw, International Edition: AllofMp3.com vs., Like, Everyone

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Congratulations, U.S. government! You've managed to show that you've got bigger control issues than freaking Russia. Jesus Chri— I mean, Unspecified Denomination's Hailed Figure (one of my New Year's resolutions is to be more Politically Correct).

So Russia's trying to play nice and join the WTO, and the U.S. government's all (in a Bill Lumberg voice), "Hey Russia... what's happening. We need to talk about this website you've got... yeah, it's AllofMp3.com?... yeah, about that. We're going to have to ask you to go ahead and uh... get rid of it... yeah."

Although AllofMp3 is totally legit in the motherland paying royalties to Russia's music licensing company, ROMS, its copyright laws are a tad lax compared to ours. I know, can you believe it? Anyway, this all went down in November after the sweethearts over at Visa gave AllofMP3 the "fuck all y'all" and stopped processing their credit card transactions. And it gets juicier

Enter the RIAA, a name we all know and love. Somehow they managed to take a break from suing soccer moms and wallowing in a sea of denial about the changing structure of the music industry long enough to get in on the AllofMp3 action by introducing a nice little lawsuit. Check these fightin' words: According to the lawsuit, AllofMp3's "pretense of legitimacy makes its enterprise potentially even more damaging than the shadowy pirate operations that cater only to those users willing to engage in intentional copyright infringement." SLICE!

The website's chances don't look so hot, what with losing tons of money to credit card transactions and other economic pressures — but hey, they've got some fangirls and boys right here on this new-fangled doohickey they call a "blog." It contains an "official" statement from AllofMp3, which reminds us that they are located in Russia and also reminds us that Russia is in fact, not located in New York, and therefore not subject to U.S. copyright laws. Choice comments include: "Fuck the american Comercialfreaks. shoot down and break necks" from "c-ra," which, weirdly enough, appears to be the only username commenting on the blog.

So, what now, AllofMp3? "Stick it to the man," as your supporter(s?) so cleverly suggest? Your website is still pretty bangin'. That 20% off sale looks pretty sexy. How about this... give me your digs and we'll keep everyone updated on your "status," okay? 'Cause this could get interesting, kna'mean?