# Legality of MP3Fiesta downloads **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 25, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740 "2007-11-25T22:49:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/1 "2007-11-25T22:49:08Z")
Ok, call me the person who looks the gift horse in the mouth. I’m searching around for MP3s of Beatles tunes for download. iTunes - No have. Yahoo music - no have. MP3Fiesta - has, and for only $0.10 a song! Now, to me, this raises the question as to how legitimate the download is at that site. Lots of places claim “legal” downloadable mp3s, including most sites that have them for “free.” But I have trouble believing that the Beatles pass up the chance to license their music to the big sites, with good prices, and allow some place that prices by “demand” to have a license. Can anyone tell me if MP3Fiesta really has a license to sell Beatles mp3s? Is this really legit? Or is it a scam, having people pay for what they can just as easily get for free, if they are already willing to violate copyright law? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/2 "2007-11-26T00:29:56Z")
It’s the newest incarnation of [allofmp3.com](http://allofmp3.com), the Russian bootleg MP3 site. No, none of the music is licensed. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/3 "2007-11-26T00:36:40Z")
They display a license from the Russian Federation on their site. My WAG, it’s not legal in the U.S. under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. I don’t know how aggressively the RIAA or U.S. government would go after someone who purchases music from them, but they do seem to be skirting U.S. copyright law. ETA, what **Telemark** said. It’s a ripoff. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/4 "2007-11-26T01:23:24Z")
Figured. When something seems too good to be true, it usually is. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/5 "2007-11-26T03:18:33Z")
In America you steal MP3s for free but in Russia you pay a dime AND give the Russian Mafia your credit card number! Y’know, even Yakov Smirnoff is funnier than that. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/6 "2007-11-26T03:27:28Z")
It is completely legal. It’s not horribly ethical, but it is completely legal, they have every right to sell you this music. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/7 "2007-11-26T03:42:19Z")
[QUOTE=E-Sabbath] It is completely legal. It’s not horribly ethical, but it is completely legal, they have every right to sell you this music. [/QUOTE] Please explain. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legality-of-mp3fiesta-downloads/427740/8 "2007-11-26T04:05:11Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] Please explain. [/QUOTE] Definitely legal in Russia per their courts, and dependant on individual country’s laws for people downloading internationally. As E-Sabbath said, it hasn’t explicity been ruled illegal to download from international sites into the US, though there are pending lawsuits. Of course, _uploading and distributing_ in the US remains illegal. Wikipedia has some good background on the legal battles… > **[AllOfMP3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllOfMP3)** > > www.AllTunes.ru 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 a... Personally, I only use these types of sites for the obscure music that is otherwise unavailable commercially here. I like lots of J-pop and German electronic stuff that simply isn’t sold directly by any labels here.