[IP] AllofMP3.com Payment Stream & Overall Legality

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mark Goldstein <markg@researchedge.com>
Date: December 8, 2005 11:16:08 AM EST
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: AllofMP3.com Payment Stream & Overall Legality
Reply-To: markg@researchedge.com

In response to your query about AllofMP3.com credit card security for  
IP if
you wish:

I've used AllofMP3.com for a couple of years now, since it was only $. 
01 per
MB of download. Now at $.02 per MB it nets out to approx. $.10-.15  
per track
pricing. I really love them for the good (not great) variety of popular
music they carry, the ability to choose your encoding protocol and bit
rates, and the lack of any DRM. If you are a registered user, you can  
listen
to full tracks and albums, not just samples at a fair quality (24  
Kbps mono)
and fully check out the music you're interested in. Also, their download
manager application has proved handy and flawless allowing you to  
queue up
lots of music to download and have it automatically feed to a coherent
subdirectory for post-processing (tweaking file names & MP3 tags, etc.).

You do have to precharge your account in modest amounts ($5-50) ahead of
your downloads. Unfortunately, they show a PayPal option but have always
indicated that it is temporarily unavailable. All direct credit card
processing is actually passed through ChronoPay, B.V.
(http://www.chronopay.com) an Internet payment service provider  
located in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The ten or twelve transactions I've  
initiated
have always seemed to be properly and professionally handled through  
this
third party and I assume my CC info stays only with them. A recent
transaction seemingly failed from the on screen message(s) and I
retransacted. When I reviewed the monthly statement, the initial  
transaction
had been in fact debited, but the duplicate was caught and reversed
appropriately without my intervention. So consider this my  
testimonial to a
favorable experience with their payment process and delight in their  
service
offering.

That being said, though AllofMP3.com claims they operate properly under
Russian copyright laws and their licensing contracts, the International
Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI - http:// 
www.ifpi.org/), the
international equivalent of the RIAA, couldn't disagree with them  
more. They
have attempted to bring suit in Russian courts which to date the  
courts have
refused to hear, though reportedly they did win an injunctive  
decision in a
German regional court earlier this year that would only affect German  
users.
One of the many articles and writings you can find on the web  
discussing the
legality and prospects is at http://www.museekster.com/ 
allofmp3faq.htm FYI.
I can only guess that the RIAA and IFPI are less certain of their legal
prospects versus their attacks on end user P2P sharing and unwilling to
further "publicize" AllofMP3.com by a full court press, but would be
interested in others' opinions in that matter.

Finally, the other paid music service I like and use is eMusic
(http://www.emusic.com/) based in the US. It is a monthly  
subscription model
starting at $9.99/month for 40 downloads that don't carry over if you  
don't
use them. Higher $ plans and purchase of Booster Pack Downloads  
available as
well. Limited in their current popular music from the big 5, but a great
collection I mine in Jazz, Blues, World Music, Comedy, and other  
genres at
about $.25 a track. Also some unique current live shows licensed only
to/thru them as well.

Best Regards,
Mark Goldstein, President
International Research Center
Voice & Fax: 602-470-0389, Skype: mark.goldstein
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/e/fpf/21322
E-Mail: markg@researchedge.com, IRC: http://www.researchedge.com/
Harnessing Global Information Resources for Informed Decision Making

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@farber.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 3:28 AM
To: ip@v2.listbox.com
Subject: [IP] Firms haggle over video on demand

How sure can I be that my credit card info is really secure if I use  
them?
djf

> From: Steve Schear <s.schear@comcast.net>
> Date: November 29, 2005 8:47:46 PM PST
>
> Its worse than that for the music industry as there is unauthorized
> but apparently legal (at least for the moment) price competition.
> Take a look at http://www.allofmp3.com. Tracks from over 25,000 albums
> available in a wide variety of user-selectable encoding formats and
> data rates priced at $0.02/MB.

> > > From: Thomas Leavitt <thomas@thomasleavitt.org>
> > > Date: November 27, 2005 10:12:02 PM PST
>
> > > ***Music industry insiders who view iTunes $0.99 per tune pricing as
> > > an annoying ceiling, might instead be wise to thank Steve Jobs for
> > > making it a floor... the "single-price" model prevents the music
> > > industry from cutting its own throat via price competition.




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