RIAA Sues AllofMP3.com

Catching up on the news from the holidays, we find the RIAA pursuing an infringement lawsuit against AllofMP3.com reportedly seeking damages for $1.65 trillion.  Actually, the Association says that it's seeking $15,000 per song and with 11 million songs downloaded, well, the math is staggering.  Nonetheless, it is the press, they say, floating the figure, not the Association.  AllofMP3.com, for its part, says the suit is unjustified as the Russian based web site complies with Russian law and pays royalties to the Russian performing arts organization, which, coincidentally, the RIAA refuses to recognize.

AllofMP3.com operates as a music store under license in Russia and sells music at significantly lower prices than U.S. download stores.  It prices songs by the megabyte (3 cents per) rather than title (99 cents, or 99 points if you're a Microsoft customer, or 79 cents if you cheap out and go the Wal-Mart route).  The license in this case is not from the American and European labels but rather from Russian entities.  Adding to the outrage is the songs are distributed in non-DRM format. 

We'll see how far this suit gets, or even if the defendants show up.  The RIAA may or may not get any money, but might try to get the AllofMP3 web address pulled as attempted in the Spamhaus case.