\u00a0 Popular Russian online music store Allofmp3.com announced its plans to
\nreopen following a ruling by a Moscow district court acquitting its former
\nhead of copyright violation. After persistent pressure and attempts by an
\nangry U.S. recording industry to smother the site, the plug was finally
\npulled on the site earlier this year by the Russian government in light of
\nthe sour point that became of it in its negotiations with the United
\nStates government over Russia's accession to the WTO.
\n\u00a0\u00a0The site has been on the firing line as it offered more than 500,000
\nsongs-some of which, such as those of the Beatles who have till date not
\nconsented to the release of their works in any digital media format, are
\nnot available on \u201cauthorised\u201d retailers like iTunes- literally \u201cfor a
\nsong\u201d, without the standard anti-piracy protections such as Digital Rights
\nManagement encryption, and without permission from the artists or
\ncopyright owners. The bigger problem for the record companies is that the
\nsite claims that its operations are legal under Russian law under which it
\noperates.
\n\u00a0\u00a0The bases for Allofmp3\u2019s claim are provisions in Russian copyright law
\nwhich provide for compulsory licensing of copyrighted material, whether
\nRussian or foreign, as long as royalties are paid to organizations
\ncollectively managing copyright-holders\u2019 rights. So in effect, these
\nsocieties don\u2019t need the copyright owner\u2019s consent when they license out
\ntheir works. Allofmp3 has agreements with two such collecting societies to
\nwhich it pays 15 percent of every sale, which is then supposed to be
\ndistributed to copyright owners. According to some statements reported in
\nthe press, the site is also considering paying original performing artists
\n5 percent of their sales revenue, regardless of whether they still hold
\nthe copyright to their music.
\n\u00a0\u00a0Given this position in domestic law, one then wonders whether the foreign
\nrecord labels may have any recourse to any of Russia\u2019s international
\ntreaty obligations. The answer, I think, is unfortunately in the negative.
\nThe multilateral intellectual property treaties to which Russia is a party
\nlay down only minimum standards, which seem to me insufficient in meeting
\nthe ends of the U.S. and other major record labels. For example, under the
\nBerne Convention, protection extends only to music composers and not to
\nrecorders and performers, and which interestingly also makes way for
\ncompulsory licensing in consideration of an equitable compensation to the
\nright holder. Similarly, the Rome Convention may also not afford relief as
\nAllofmp3\u2019s mechanism of royalty payment to management organisations may
\nqualify under the Convention\u2019s allowance for broadcast of music without\u00a6lt;br \/> the rightholders\u2019 consent in return of sufficient remuneration. Nor is
\nRussia a signatory to the 1996 WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty
\nwhich was introduced specifically in light of technological advances, and
\nwhich gives the producers of the work the exclusive right of distribution
\nof their work in all media.
\n\u00a0\u00a0While the true legal position of Allofmp3 may be hazy at the moment, two
\nthings emerge clearly from the hoopla surrounding it. One is the
\ninadequacy of national laws, coupled with the territoriality of
\nintellectual property regimes, to deal with infringement in today\u2019s
\ndigital age. The other- related but larger- issue which I feel strongly
\nabout is of the difference in values and priorities between the IP policy
\nof modern capitalist societies and that of communist\/post-communist
\nsocieties such as Russia, and how a hegemonising discourse has been built
\naround the former.\u00a0\u00a6lt;br \/> \u00a0\u00a0The whole controversy around Allofmp3.com can be related to a
\nrightholder-centric, capitalist IP policy which, laden with its values of
\nindividual rights and profit-maximisation, has come to be the dominant
\ndiscourse in intellectual property law policy, and hence, almost
\nemotively, to be synonymous with what is \u201cright\u201d and \u201cfair\u201d in this domain
\nof the law.\u00a0 In this bargain, the user-centric, communitarian policies of
\nnations like Russia and China having a communist background, which place
\nemphasis on the dissemination of information and ideas to the public, have
\ncome to be undermined and criticised.\u00a6lt;br \/> \u00a0\u00a0Intellectual property rights are not hegemony; they are just certain
\nincentive-based, and sometimes dessert-based, entitlements against which
\nthe public interest in access and dissemination- has to be counterweighed.
\nThe function of copyright law is to attain and maintain the balance
\nbetween the interests of the creators, owners and users. A regime of
\ncompulsory licensing coupled with royalties and protection of moral rights
\nof creators is perhaps one way of achieving this balance. This means that,
\nin the case of Allofmp3, the focus should turn from shutting down the
\nwebsite to ensuring that the remuneration to the creators and
\ncopyright-holders is adequate, and more importantly, that it reaches them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Popular Russian online music store Allofmp3.com announced its plans to reopen following a ruling by a Moscow district court acquitting its former head of copyright violation. After persistent pressure and attempts by an angry U.S. recording industry to smother the site, the plug was finally pulled on the site earlier this year by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[65,162],"tags":[210],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright","category-digital-downloads","tag-sonam-kathuria"],"yoast_head":"\n