*That* russian music download site

riddlermarc

riddlermarc

riddlermarc

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Okay, seems it has been given the green light by the russian authorities but does that mean it's legal outside Russia? People are crowing about the excellent quality and price compared to iTunes but if it's *not* legal in the UK then it's no better than illegally downloading the tracks from P2P sources?

Mods, I'm assuming this is okay to talk about as long as the www site is't mentioned?
 
If it's the same one I'm thinking of I thought that they'd blocked uk credit cards? Have they changed this now?
 
TripleT said:
If it's the same one I'm thinking of I thought that they'd blocked uk credit cards? Have they changed this now?
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MC and Visa wasn't it? Not sure if they have overturned that but apparently it has a sister site which you can use?
No idea what the current situation is though..
 
The only reason I used that place was the different formats you could get. Now I just don't bother paying at all unless the artist is someone I like.
 
riddlermarc said:
Okay, seems it has been given the green light by the russian authorities but does that mean it's legal outside Russia? People are crowing about the excellent quality and price compared to iTunes but if it's *not* legal in the UK then it's no better than illegally downloading the tracks from P2P sources?

Mods, I'm assuming this is okay to talk about as long as the www site is't mentioned?
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Really - just think about things logically.
Every legal site in the UK with a large catalogue of tracks that can be downloaded legally are charging around 65p - 85p a track.
They usually offer UK based servers and accept Visa, Mastercard and all major credit/debit cards.
They aren't appearing in news stories every day, the record industry isn't attempting to close them down etc.

Now compare that with a site that is based and hosted in Russia.
They themselves say that they come under Russian Law and that you should check your local law before doing anything (as if that is some kind of magical disclaimer).
They are charging next to nothing for the tracks.
Visa/Mastercard stopped you being able to pay them and both the record industry and the government want to close them down.

Now ask yourself again - are they legal?
The answer is obvious really - they are no more legal than downloading the track from a P2P site and at least with a P2P download nobody is actually making money out of the theft.
 
stoofa said:
<snippage>
Now ask yourself again - are they legal?
The answer is obvious really - they are no more legal than downloading the track from a P2P site and at least with a P2P download nobody is actually making money out of the theft.
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Indeed, my thoughts exactly but I was just asking if anyone knew definitively if it were legal/not to clear things up :)

I can't see how it would be legal but IANAL when it comes to cross-border legalities etc..
 
My understanding is that it is legal for people within Russia but not for those outside, hence their rather poor attempt at a disclaimer.

If you're going to download on the cheap use P2P, at least if you're going to steal music it might as well not involve giving money to dodgy Russian companies.
 
stoofa said:
They are charging next to nothing for the tracks.
Visa/Mastercard stopped you being able to pay them and both the record industry and the government want to close them down.

Now ask yourself again - are they legal?
The answer is obvious really - they are no more legal than downloading the track from a P2P site and at least with a P2P download nobody is actually making money out of the theft.
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Of course the record industry wants to close them down as it reduces their profits, just like they want to stop places like CD WOW from selling cheap music to us. You might want to buy into their BS but in a free market we should be alllowed to legitimately purchase goods across borders but we arent because they want to carry on their protectionist policies forcing us to pay over the odds for goods.

There is no theft involved at all, you can spin it all how you like. They may be breaking the terms of their contract to the record companies of which it is legal only to do so in Russia but because its not legal to sell outside of Russia doesnt make it theft. If CD WOW was to sell me a DVD it doesnt make it theft, the price is irrelevant as it is the going price in that region.
 
stoofa said:
snip
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the Russian goverment has deemed them legal. So there are def legal in Russia. I don't see how it can be illegal to download it in England. It's no diffrent to going abroad and buying a legit cd and brining it back. Just all the agencys declare it's illegal as they don't wont you using it. I can't see what law you would be braking, I can't even see what civil case the music industry could bring to you.
 
chimaera said:
My understanding is that it is legal for people within Russia but not for those outside, hence their rather poor attempt at a disclaimer.

If you're going to download on the cheap use P2P, at least if you're going to steal music it might as well not involve giving money to dodgy Russian companies.
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I have no intention of doing so, this post was merely to to try to find out if I was missing the legal facts or not :)
 
AcidHell2 said:
the Russian goverment has deemed them legal. So there are def legal in Russia. I don't see how it can be illegal to download it in England. It's no diffrent to going abroad and buying a legit cd and brining it back. Just all the agencys declare it's illegal as they don't wont you using it. I can't see what law you would be braking, I can't even see what civil case the music industry could bring to you.
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As you say surely it's just the same as importing, as long as the material is legal theres not much they can do about it.
 
weringo said:
As you say surely it's just the same as importing, as long as the material is legal theres not much they can do about it.
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But think about it, what is legal in another country isn't necessarily legal in this country. Someone flying into the UK with a couple of CDs bought in Russia/Thailand/anywhere with more lax copyright regulations is pretty small beer (so to speak) but to do so (take the flights etc in the first place) costs a significant amount of money and it isn't really an economic method of importing into the country, downloading via the internet is cheap and potentially limitless nearly so suddenly copyright infringement becomes worth caring about. :)
 
Gilly said:
Copyright
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We all know that although it is law, it is BS law. There really isnt any copyrights being broken just like CD WOW arent or werent breaking any copyrights. Its just down to licensing and their method of protecting their income.
 
Bear said:
We all know that although it is law, it is BS law. There really isnt any copyrights being broken just like CD WOW arent or werent breaking any copyrights. Its just down to licensing and their method of protecting their income.
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If they didn't protect their income there'd be no money in the game therefore no or very little music.
 
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