The Russian authorities took action against ALLOFMP3.com and its principals last month, following an investigation by the Computer Crimes unit of Moscow City Police and a complaint by music industry group the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI).
The web site and its owners were accused of involvement in large-scale copyright infringement through the offering of music for sale without authorisation from rights holders in Russia and internationally.
ALLOFMP3.com denies the infringement allegations, explaining on its site that it has licences to sell the music from the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. But it sells the music for bargain prices.
Rather than charging per track, it charges per megabyte. Just US$5 can buy 500MB of music – about 40 albums in MP3 format, or up to 80 albums if WMA format is selected (since users have a choice of several formats). By comparison, iTunes charges UK users £7.99 (about US$15) for one album. Eighty albums would cost over £600 to a British iTunes user.
The Tass news agency said that prosecutors will take no action against ALLOFMP3.com because the relevant Russian legislation covers only physical goods, such as videos and DVDs, and cannot be extended to digital MP3 files.
Speaking to the BBC, a spokeswoman for the IFPI could not confirm that any such decision had been taken.
"However if it is true that the prosecutor has not taken the case this would be very disappointing considering the blatant and large-scale infringement that continues to take place," she said. "If these reports are confirmed we will take the case further."
