# Legality of allofmp3.com **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 5, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717 "2004-05-05T21:28:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717/21 "2004-05-10T23:20:38Z")
Essentially if someone has the legal right to sell something, you have the legal right to buy it, unless specifically prohibited by law. So the big question is whether the company does or does not have the right to sell music. If they do, then it’s just too bad that American artists aren’t getting paid enough. They or their representatives made the legal arrangements for the rights overseas. Caveat vendor (eh, something like that). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717/22 "2004-05-11T00:38:16Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Seeing how this is GQ, cite? Preferably treaties and other international law. Or was I a thief long before I had even heard of Napster when I bought a Red Hot Chili Peppers CD in Germany and then brought it back into the US? And I would like a better answer than “because I say so” as to why ROMS isn’t qualified. Cite: [The Berne Convention](http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html). If you’re a signatory, you are required to uphold other countries’ copyrights. The Russian Federation is a [signatory](http://www.copyrightaid.co.uk/berne_convention_signatories.htm). And buying a CD is not making a copy, so copyright law doesn’t apply. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717/23 "2004-05-11T02:43:17Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > So the big question is whether the company does or does not have the right to sell music. If they do, then it’s just too bad that American artists aren’t getting paid enough. They or their representatives made the legal arrangements for the rights overseas. But there’s a big difference between having the right to distribute the music _within the country in question_, which is what the sale of overseas rights would cover, and distributing it worldwide, which is what’s being done here. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717/24 "2004-05-11T03:09:40Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Cite: [The Berne Convention](http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html). If you’re a signatory, you are required to uphold other countries’ copyrights. The Russian Federation is a [signatory](http://www.copyrightaid.co.uk/berne_convention_signatories.htm). > > And buying a CD is not making a copy, so copyright law doesn’t apply. Manufacturing a CD is making a copy, though. I don’t work in the record industry, but it seems to me that the (legally made) CDs you find in countries where CDs are cheap are probably manufactured in countries where they’re cheap to make, not imported from the U.S. We can divide this into two questions: (1) Is it legal for a U.S. citizen to buy a copy of a song that was legally made in another country? (2) Is AllOfMP3 legally making the copies they sell? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717/25 "2004-05-11T17:14:45Z")
> [@Mr2001](#): > > We can divide this into two questions: (1) Is it legal for a U.S. citizen to buy a copy of a song that was legally made in another country? (2) Is AllOfMP3 legally making the copies they sell? The problem with viewing the issue that way is that AllOfMP3 is not actually making the copies at all. What they are doing is offering the general public access to their collection, and the copy is being made by the buyer. If AllOfMP3 is doing anything illegal/immoral–and I believe they are–it would be in the realm of distribution/publication, not reproduction. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717/26 "2004-05-11T21:14:38Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > The problem with viewing the issue that way is that AllOfMP3 is not actually making the copies at all. What they are doing is offering the general public access to their collection, and the copy is being made by the buyer. That’s quite a stretch. The buyer doesn’t have access to the files until AllOfMP3 begins sending them from their server. At that point in time, the entire song is still on AllOfMP3’s drive while a copy of the song is being sent over the internet. It seems clear that only the sender is actually making a copy - the song that the buyer saves to disk is the same copy that was sent over the internet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-allofmp3-com/243717.md?page=1)