# A Question of Legality and Cheap MP3 Downloads

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-legality-and-cheap-mp3-downloads/429326>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 8, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-legality-and-cheap-mp3-downloads/429326 "2007-12-08T21:23:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-legality-and-cheap-mp3-downloads/429326/1 "2007-12-08T21:23:19Z")

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I’m trying to get to the bottom of this. I found a website that offers MP3 music for a quite low cost… apparently it’s a Russian website. I’m rooting around trying to figure out how they can charge so little and still be legal, but they say they are licensed by something called ROMS and that ‘‘_Site Owner pays license fees for all materials downloaded from the Site subject to the International Copyright Law. Authors, Artists and other Copyright holders including major labels are paid their fair dues._’’

There seems to be some international controversy over the legality of this practice, but I read an article where a similar website was challenged and the Russian government did not press charges. However, I am unable to find much information about this phenomena as a whole, other than random posts with no credibility attached.

I’m one of those people who likes to obey the law… I don’t like getting in trouble.

I am not interested in making this a discussion of the moral implications of downloading music illegally… I am trying to find information about what is going on with the law here. What is the ‘‘catch’’ that allows these Russian sites to operate, is it or is it not actually legal, and is there any way that by downloading from the site, I can be charged with breaking any laws?

Thanks for your time.

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**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-of-legality-and-cheap-mp3-downloads/429326/2 "2007-12-08T21:44:48Z")

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> **[AllOfMP3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllOfMP3.com)**
>
> AllOfMP3, MP3Sparks and MemphisMembers are brands of online music store that were operated by Mediaservices, Inc., a company founded in 2000 in Moscow, Russia. The stores formerly sold music encoded in standard, non-protected audio formats at a significantly lower cost than other online music stores. In 2008, the original AllOfMp3 site was replaced by a blog.
> The company has been plagued by legal issues for some time due to accusations, mainly from the record industry, that they are operating i...