MP3's Of My Music Found Online

[dharvell]

What is the name of your state? Michigan.

I am a musician who performs under the name, [null factor]. While executing an online search of my project's name, I ran across several web sites offering my CD, "Purity" for download in MP3 format. Price of download ranges from $1.65 to $2.20 for the entire recording.

All sites claim to be covered by the following clause in the Terms Of Agreement:

The availability over the Internet of the (insert web site here) materials is authorized by the license of the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS). Under the licenses terms, (insert web site here) pays license fees for all materials downloaded from the site subject to the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights". All these materials are solely for personal use. Any further distribution, resale or broadcasting are prohibited.

Being sole license-holder of my music, I have not received any related "fees" as described in above clause, even though some of these sites have feedback from clients who say they have downloaded my music.

Performing a "whois" of all sites selling my music comes up with contact information, so finding the owners of these sites seems pretty straight forward.

Do I have any legal ground to stand on to:

1 - Sue for copyright infringments
2 - Have my music removed from these sites
3 - Recover any monies due me for sale of my material

Any information would be most appreciated.

 

[muggsyj]

This is not legal Advice!


Your Quote: "Recover any monies due me for the sale of my material.
That would be the route i would be heading for.

For Rightsholders
According to the legislation of Russian Federation, ROMS is entitled and obliged to operate in the name and in the interests of absolutely all rightsholders, both Russian and foreign.
ROMS carries out its activity on the basis of the powers given directly by the Law, irrespective of the presence or absence of a contract with a rightsholder. Licenses given by ROMS "allow using of all works and objects of related rights only in the form provided by such licenses, and are given on behalf of all owners of copyright and related rights, including those who have not given their authority to the organization" (Section 2 of Article 45 of the Law of Russian Federation on Copyright and Related Rights).
Standard and accounting documents of ROMS have been timely provided to Rospatent (now reorganized to the Federal Service on Intellectual Property, Patents and Trade Marks). According to the Government's Regulation No. 413 of 12.04.99, it was empowered to develop international cooperation with public organizations in the field of copyright and related rights.
Since 2001 ROMS takes all measures for collection, distribution and payment of the compensation to all rightsholders.
Until January 1, 2004, all the compensation collected by ROMS for foreign owners of copyright concerning the use of music compositions was transferred to RAO, which, in accordance with the ROMS-RAO agreement, undertook to transfer the due funds to the respective foreign rightsholders.
As of January 1, 2004, ROMS independently distributes the compensation to and concludes agreements directly with foreign author societies as well as foreign rightsholders.
According to Section 2 of Clause 47 of the Law of Russian Federation on Copyright and Related Rights, any owner of copyright or related rights that had concluded an agreement with ROMS, has the right to demand due compensation according to the distribution performed by ROMS.

Good Luck.

 

[dharvell]

MUGGSYJ - Thank you for the reply. It is much appreciated.

I found the ROMS web site and dug through the Russian portions of the site to find the contact area. I just hope they know English!

Politely, I pointed out that at least one of the web sites offering my music for download is doing so for free. Seeing that the site is offering my copyrighted material for no charge, it would be difficult to recoup license money from that site (I gave the URL of the site).

Another site has at least 10 comments from users praising my work, which would give the appearance that my material has been downloaded. Even though the evidence is that my music has been purchased, I have seen no money in return. Again, the URL is stated in this case, as well.

If this e-mail fails to provide a response, do you have any idea what my next move would be? I have never dealt with international issues regarding my music... I am in new territory. (wow!!! I'm an international artist!!!)

Thanks, again, for the reply.

 

[muggsyj]

This is not legal Advice!


Hi darvell,

As for your next step i am unsure, if you get a reply at least they are admitting they are distributing your material. The problem is this is a worldwide problem at the moment and we are in the age of file sharing so it is very hard to stop. There was a company that were substantially fined in Europe lately for this crime but they have found another loop hole to get there company back online. I am not sure what to suggest to be honest because each country has there own views and laws on this subject.

Good Luck

 

[dharvell]

That's the main concern of mine, the fact that it's a global issue, involving different sets of laws which compounds the numbers of loopholes available. On one hand, this is a major problem for me, as I have reason to believe that this is taking food out of my mouth. On the other hand, I'm gaining listeners on a global scale.

Maybe, once the RIAA realizes that $.99 for a low-quality, DRM-limited file is an unfair price, we can compete with these shady-at-best web sites. Until then, I'm at the mercy of the global rule set.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[muggsyj]

Your welcome dharvell,

Sorry I could not give you a better opinion but like we both understand it is down to international law to work together to stop this global issue.

Take care and good luck.


Mark.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

There is a great problem you're dealing with and not just because of Russian "law" but what will it take to enforce your rights against this company? Who will make them pay if you can actually obtain a judgment against them? You can read more about the issue here in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllOfMP3

The RIAA was hoping to enforce the rights you have earlier and if you haven't read the articles, do a search on allofmp3.com and mp3sparks.com, the latter is the alleged successor to allofmp3. Best of luck to you and so sorry to hear you're being ripped off like this.

AllOfMP3, MP3Sparks and MemphisMembers are brands of online music store that were operated by Mediaservices, Inc, a company founded in 2000 in Moscow, Russia. The stores formerly sold music encoded in standard, non-protected audio formats at a significantly lower cost than other online music stores. As of 2008, the original AllOfMp3 site has been replaced by a blog. The MP3Sparks site still appears to be a fully operational music download store. The site experiences occasional periods when it cannot be accessed for several days at a time, but as of May 31 2008 the site is accessible.

The company has been plagued by legal issues for some time due to accusations, mainly from the record industry, that they are operating illegally and engaging in music piracy. For at least the past two months, members of the MP3Sparks website have been, and continue to be, unable to add money to their accounts. There is no foreseeable conclusion to this problem.

 

[dharvell]

THELAWPROFESSOR - Very interesting information... and disturbing. Sounds like, even if the recording industry (which I have differences in views with) cannot stop these international sites, I have very little chance as an independent artist.

Thanks for the information.

One bit of information that may be important to this thread - I received an e-mail reply from ROMS saying that NONE of the sites that I listed in my e-mail (including AllOfMp3 and its sister sites) have license agreements with ROMS. The sites are all operating while hiding under ROMS, but they do not have license to use the music through ROMS. I found this very interesting...

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Interesting and very disturbing, unfortunately. Best of luck...