Over the weekend there were news reports that US trade negotiators had linked success in WTO talks with Russia with the curailment of the popular music site allofmp3.com. An amazing display of lobbying muscle by the lawyers of the US music industry.
This was followed by a bullish response from a representative of Media Services, the Russian company behind allofmp3.com.
Today the BBC website and other news feeds are reporting that Visa and Mastercard (both US companies) have now decided not to allow cardholders to conduct transactions with allofmp3.com. Why? The publicly quoted reason is concern about the legality of allofmp3.com in Russia (although this has not really been questioned previously). Probably they're more concerned that if US lobbying goes the way of Kazaa the card issuers might find themselves jointly liable should the music industry start lobbing out lawsuits.
Will this be the final nail in the coffin of DRM free music? Well, there'll probably be other ways to pay - such as PayPal, but I guess its only a matter of time before that route to the loot gets choked off too.
A plentiful supply of digital music that you could really move from platform to platform, just as you though you could do with iTunes Music Store, and all at low prices. Those were the days, thanks music industry, your customers will endlessly thank you for this price hike.
No comments:
Post a Comment