"The service will be resumed in the foreseeable future," said an
AllofMP3 statement published online. "We are doing our best at the
moment to ensure that all our users can use their accounts, top up
balance and order music."
Kvasov was the general director and owner of the Media Services,
the company behind the site, which charged extremely low prices for
music downloads and was the UK's second most popular paid-for
download site, behind Apple's iTunes.
The Cheremushkin District Court in Moscow found in favour of
Kvasov, though presiding judge Yekaterina Sharapova said that this
was because of a lack of evidence caused by a 'sloppy' prosecution
case.
"The prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive
evidence of his involvement in infringing copyright law," said
Sharapova in her ruling. She said she wanted to "draw attention to
the sloppy job done by prosecutors in collecting and analysing the
facts," and said prosecutors should be "careful in collecting
evidence in connection with intellectual rights violations".
Kvasov's legal team argued that he was a director of the company
in a period before a law change during which it was legal to make
recordings available. The law changed to outlaw it only in
September 2006, said his lawyers.
Recording industry associations in the US and Europe have argued
that AllofMP3 is illegal because it operates without the permission
of or payment to their members.
AllofMP3 says that it makes payments to artists through
collections society the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society
(ROMS), but that the record labels do not accept those
payments.
Music on AllofMP3 is cheaper than on services such as iTunes
sometimes by a factor of 10. Popular, recently-released albums were
available for as little as $1.
Since AllofMP3 was closed down another near-identical site,
MP3Sparks.com, opened. Two other current directors of Media
Services face charges relating to AllofMP3 in cases that are yet to
be heard.
Three major labels, EMI, Warner and Universal, had been seeking
15 million roubles, or around £293,000, in the case against
Kvasov.
AllofMP3 has been a prominent stumbling block in negotiations
about Russia's joining of the World Trade Organisation. US trade
officials have said they would block Russia's entry while sites
such as AllofMP3 were allowed to operate unpunished within its
borders.
Earlier this year a 25 year old man was arrested in London and
is suspected of being AllofMP3's agent in the UK, selling vouchers
for tracks from the site.
