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Posted by FatKat on 10/07/43 11:52
Crabby Patty wrote:
> Guys, please forgive the intrusion into your newsgroup's topic ...
Oh that's okay Mr. Crabbs, we figured it was OT when you put the
letters "O" & "T" in your reference line as you....oh wait, you didn't.
Bad Crabs!!!
> I'm
> trying to reach a large number of people in order to influence events.
A "Free iPod - no refferrals or credit cards needed" tag in the subject
line would have been more effective.
> Everybody knows that MP3s at $0.99 a pop aren't exactly a wonderful
> deal, considering downloading saves the recording industry the cost of
> producing CDs, printing, jewel cases, distribution, billing, etc.,
> etc..
If the deal is to shaft the record companies, it's probably not a good
deal. But if it's to buy music and pay those who actually have a
license to sell it, it sounds like a decent exchange. The recording
industry saves themselves packaging costs tied to individual albums
though I'm not sure if the benefits are so outbalanced when you throw
in the maintenance, transcaction & security costs tied to on-line
transactions, and that's assuming that putting more music on-line
doesn't make more content available for peer-share systems that errode
industry profits on sanctioned sales.
> Enter AllOfMP3, a Russian site which is apparently legal (so far)
> in Russia and charging around a tenth to a fifth of that, depending on
> the bit rate (i.e., the file sizes) you're downloading. They say they
> contribute their fair share to the recording industry, but of course if
> they do the artists are not likely to be getting anything much out of
> it.
I've never heard AllOfMP3 say that they contribute to the recording
industry - maybe the Russian recording industry authority, but not the
industry that's actually associated with the music actually downloaded.
It's ludicrous to even add the caveat that AOMP3 is legal in Russia
when so many customers are outside Russia, where little of the content
traded is Russian (how many "Autograph" fans are still alive?) and when
the likelihood that the industry would even want a legal venue in
Russia is quite slim.
> Despite the questionable ethics of their operation ... and of
> dealing with their operation ... that's still a tempting proposition
What temptation would that be? And just what questions do you have?
AOMP3 doesn't contrubute (or claim to) to those who legally possess the
license to sell the content, so you might as well be downloading on
WinMX or BT or soemthing else which doesn't charge you anything - the
ethics are about as questionable, but the costs are not.
> You can argue the ethics 'til we're all blue in the face, but I'll say
> this much about it -- if you're downloading music that you've already
> bought (CD's albums, tapes) then I personally don't have many qualms
> about it.
You don't have to argue ethics - you're paying to pirate music of
dubious quality. BTW, have you bothered to actually look at what this
NG is about? If you think you're saving money and acting with even
arguable propriety, then you've got a bigger problem than ethics.
> I'll gladly pay $1 to $3 an album to avoid having to convert
> even CDs to MP3s, not even to speak of vinyl and cassettes, and I don't
> feel like the artist has been shorted.
Or you can get them for free. But you've gone the middle-path, paying
for what many other people get for free, but exposing you to the same
liability.
> OK, well that's at least
> somewhat debateable, but I figure I've done my part for the artist if
> I've bought their music in whatever form, and certainly I figure I've
> done enough for the recording industry.
That's assuming ofcourse that we're talking about music you already
own. Ofcourse, if it's available music, you could just go to a public
library and borrow the CD. More obscure stuff is available reasonably
priced on E*Bay for about $1-3 - though shipping will add to that, if
slightly (it's cheap - most obscure stuff is.) Again, that's if you
want to go the legal/ethical route. By going to AOMP3, you've forgone
that, becoming no better (in the industry's eyes) than somebody who
just downloads from a peer-share network. The fact that you pay for it
means little to the industry - they're not getting your money.
>
> Now, AllOfMP3 makes it easy to find and download whatever you want, at
> whatever bit rate you specify.
The big problem is that there's little quality assurance with outfits
like AOMP3 - they have so much media, they can't be bothered to check
it all. At their prices, you could afford to buy multiple copies, but
then again you bypass the mortar/brick stores and iTunes because you
didn't want to pay more than once for the same music. Ofcourse, for
those who don't really care about music at all, the only problem is how
to pay for it.
> The BIG problem comes in making
> payment. They gladly accept credit cards, naturally, but are YOU going
> to give your credit card to a Russian company via their Web site?
Aren't you a customer? Apparently you've already done this. Or if you
haven't, why are you bothering to cross-post? Basically you've got
nothing but your suspicions - while I have established the fact that
you really have no business trying to get music over the internet at
all.
> MANY, MANY PEOPLE DO, however. AllOfMP3 is one of the most popular sites on
> the Net right now.
"Most popular sites on the Net?" Sounds very, VERY 1998 - but
shouldn't that be "the 'Net"? Anywa, how have we established that
AOMP3 is one of the most popular? Every now and then it goes down, and
there are scattered posts on usenet groups about them - it seems that
very little is known of them, there's little confidence in them, an
improportionately high suspicion of them because they're Russian and
(thanks to our normally clueless media) the West has cleared up the
propriety issue by broadcasting news reports in which crackdowns of
sites like AOMP3 have been urged by the recording industry. Meanwhile,
iTunes, other sanctioned DL sites and existing CD's continue to supply
the vast bulk of content playing on most of today's MP3 players.
> And it turns out (not particularly surprisingly)
> that SOME people HAVE begin reporting credit card fraud (ostensibly
> originating is Russia) after paying AllOfMP3, although the number and
> percentage -- SO FAR -- are apparently rather small.
Would that "SOME" include YOU? What is the point ofyour post? Just
spreading some more suspicion that everybody here has heard of? Again,
just look at what this NG is about - we don't pay for our music.
> It's probably not
> AllOfMP3 that is at fault, but rather the payment processing company
> that they use, or some hacker who has gotten in via a backdoor because
> of shoddy security, or just a dishonest employee.
Or just the fault of the customers. They aren't really paying for the
music - they could get that for free. What they're paying for is the
veneer of legality while not exactly acting very legally. It takes
investigation to confirm just how iffy AOMP3's claim to being legal is
- at least establishing how questionable it is.
>
> BUT, AllOfMP3 offers another way to pay -- anonymously. No, not PayPal
> (which has stopped dealing with them directly, perhaps because of the
> thorny legal and ethical questions),
Or rather because AOMP3 is run by a bunch of dead-beats who feel like
shafting PayPal as much as they have their customers and the western
recording industries.
> but rather another Russian company
> called XROST ... which DOES deal with PayPal, or so they have said. You
> buy a credit in increments of $10 and then you can apply that credit
> anonymously and pretty securely to AllOfMP3. You're buffered by two
> layers of anonymity, and although that's no absolute guarantee, it
> appears (from doing some behind the scenes research) that it's highly
> unlikely that anyone would ever be able and willing to go so far as to
> find out the names of those who download file from this "service".
why would they care who downloads from their service - it's the payment
info that they're after.
>
<snippage>
> Shucks -- looks like we're snookered if we want to keep ourselves
> relatively safe. That is unless we can light a fire under someone or
> get things moving in another direction.
What's this we stuff? Still haven't read the NG? Looks like the only
snookered one is you.
> TOWARDS THAT END, if you are buying MP3s from this AllOfMP3 service,
> please STOP. And ask anyone you know who is using the service to stop
> also.
Still no clue, right? I'll give you a hint - this is a NG for people
who use something called "WinMX".
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