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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Friday, October 06, 2006

Russian music Internet site refuses to buckle to US pressure

AFP:

A Russian Internet site selling Western pop music at knock-down prices says it will continue its methods even though the United States says it is obstructing Russian accession to the World Trade Organisation.

Russia, the only major world economy not in the WTO, hopes to wrap up membership talks with the United States by the end of this month, the trade ministry has said.

A particular problem has been Russia's lax protection of intellectual property and the vast quantities of bootlegged music and films found in shops and bazaars across the country.

Allofmp3.com has found a ready market outside Russia's borders, becoming the second most popular music site among British consumers after US on-line store iTunes.

The site offers music tracks for as little as a third of a dollar and entire albums for two dollars, which compares with 99 US cents per track from iTunes.

I wrote a review of AllofMP3.com, which you can find now on the SuperSite for Windows. This site is almost certainly illegal. But it's also exactly how music should be priced and presented to users. If legal digital music were this inexpensive, both CDs and pirated music would disappear overnight.

[ Posted at 12:56 PM | Permalink ]