Legality of Legalsounds.com

Soldato
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Morning all,

I was told by a colleague this morning that Legalsounds.com is based in Russia and is offering Chart albums for downloading at extremely low prices, and wondered about the legality of buying tracks from there and keeping them on my mp3 player.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this please?
 
Soldato
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stokefan said:
Morning all,

I was told by a colleague this morning that Legalsounds.com is based in Russia and is offering Chart albums for downloading at extremely low prices, and wondered about the legality of buying tracks from there and keeping them on my mp3 player.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this please?

This is very similar to the other Russian music site to be honest - it sounds too good to be true - which means it probably is.

Rich

<EDIT>

From my edit it is clear to see that as the other Russian site cannot be mentioned, I guess this one won't last long either!

</EDIT>
 
Capodecina
Soldato
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I use another site based in/around Russia. They've been nobbled twice but they swear they are legal now. I still give my money to them because well - I believe them when they say they are legal :p
 
Soldato
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theyre legal


but i think its just illegal for us to use them

suppose they should have blocks for outsiders etc

im guessing the price of a music cd in Russia is very very cheap so the mp3s are cheap to
 
Soldato
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They conform to every single one of their countries own laws - this whole claiming that it is a grey area is such rubbish.

fini
 
Soldato
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its similar to how mp3s from american sites seem cheaper than the uk ones , and that you could import a cd from the usa for much cheaper than we pay

Russia is just a big step cheaper
 
Associate
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how much money does the artist get?

nothing

because they are under no agreement to pay the royalties to artists and labels.
this is what all the fuss is about.

I believe that technically it is illegal for you to buy music in this country (regardless of its origin) without paying the royalties owed.

one such site is selling MP3's of my band. I am not best pleased about it.
 
Capodecina
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lozza23_uk said:
how much money does the artist get?

nothing

That's nothing new. Artists in many countries get jack **** from the sales of their albums, mp3 sites or not.

The royalties go into the industry [label, distribution] not always the artist. A bit upside-down, I know.
 
Caporegime
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I guess this is similar to the European Commission investigating Apple's iTunes Charging Fraud, and how living in Britain we pay higher prices then anyone else for an iTunes track, but cannot buy from any other country.
 
Associate
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Lysander said:
That's nothing new. Artists in many countries get jack **** from the sales of their albums, mp3 sites or not.

The royalties go into the industry [label, distribution] not always the artist. A bit upside-down, I know.

the artist gets mechanical royalties no matter what in this country.

but if the music is bought from outside the country in electronic format then the artist doesnt get that.
 
Soldato
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The royalty thing people have really got wrong on here.

AFAIK russian companies have to pay a set fee whenever they want to sell any track. This goes to some great big collection agency thing in russia. Artists can then sign up with this (state owned) organisation and get their share of the royalties - except not a single one of the RIAA controlled artists is signed up - hardly the russian companies fault
 
Associate
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fact.

and that is the labels responsibility not the artists.

although it is the artists responsibility to sign up for the PRS and MCPS, that cover any air time (public broadcast of your material must be paid for) etc etc.

and these associations do collect from other countries. but only EU I believe.
 
Soldato
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That other russian site is awesome, I'm a (very) regular customer of it. I couldn't care less for its legality, all I know is that they charge the real value of music, which I am willing to pay - not the inflated "the RIAA wishes music was this valuable" value of music ;)
 
Soldato
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andy said:
im guessing the price of a music cd in Russia is very very cheap so the mp3s are cheap to

Yep.

Except that the covers are all copied... I spent around roughly £20 in a Russian music store on a St Petersburg main street and walked away with 32 cds and Lord of the rings 3, at the time unreleased in europe...

we used to download 'full track samples' from a russian site, but then they changed to 30 seconds...
 
Soldato
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fini said:
They conform to every single one of their countries own laws - this whole claiming that it is a grey area is such rubbish.

fini

You are quite correct - there is no grey area.
It is illegal to use them in the UK.
Local law ALWAYS takes prescendence over a foreign law.
We are in no way covered by any Russian laws.

To those of us that do care - 79p is still about the best price per track you can get for legal downloads in the UK.
I personally find this figure extremely acceptable for the few tracks I buy.
When I want to buy an album I'll buy the physical album as it's cheaper.

For those of you who don't care then carry on either paying next to nothing to a site in Russia or download them free from usenet or your favourite torrent.
Personally if I was going to be a thieving scumbag I'd just thieve it and not pay anyone (usenet or torrent) rather than pay somebody to do the first part of the thieving for me.
However it's a moot point for me as I only use and download from legal places.
 
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