Agent for allofmp3.com Arrested in London
The music industry has scored another success in its international battle against the music piracy site allofmp3.com. The Russian website, formerly ranked as the #2 music download site in the U.K., resorted to the use of payment vouchers after being cut off by PayPal and the major credit card companies. Relying on Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 for the first time in a copyright-related case, police in London have raided and shut down an online voucher system allegedly used by allofmp3.com and arrested an unidentified 25-year-old man on charges that he was the UK-based European agent for allofmp3.com, facilitating the sale of digital downloads by advertising and selling vouchers through auction sites such as eBay and the website allofmp3vouchers.co.uk. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a music industry trade group, the vouchers contained a code that allowed UK and European consumers to access and download music illegally from the allofmp3.com website. The suspect is believed to have transferred the cash he received from European customers into various offshore accounts operated by allofmp3.com's Russian owners.
The RIAA filed suit against MediaServices, LLC, the owner of allofmp3.com, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in December 2006. Following the RIAA's filing of a motion to default allofmp3.com, MediaServices, LLC just recently retained counsel to defend it in the action.