It appears that the Russian mp3 site, AllofMP3 has had its priveliges to process Visa and Mastercard payment types revoked. It seems the RIAA has likely had a hand in this. A spokesman from Mastercard said that  "MasterCard does not tolerate the use of its network for illegal activity..." Visa took a similar stand. Why would they do this? The site itself, technically operates legally. They pay royalties to the Russian Multimedia and Internet society, who in turn attempt to give the money to the record companies. The record companies (RIAA) do not accept these. The purpose is to keep AllofMP3 from being a competitor.

The US government will not allow Russia into the World Trade Organization because of AllofMP3's existance. It is really all a ploy, in my opinion. The site follows Russian law, and attempts to pay loyalties (stupid RIAA is sandbagging to try and shut a viable competetor down). Furthermore, it is legal to use in the USA because we are importing a product from a foreign country. There is a legal loophole that allows such activities.

Eventually the site plans to give its music away for free, using ads to support itself. When that happens, lets see how long it takes for the USA to set up a national firewall to block AllofMP3.

Oh well. Looks like we are stuck transferring money to Paypal accounts, then using XROST. Hopefully Paypal doesn't follow the card companies' suite.

More info:

http://www.betanews.com/article/AllofMP3_Fights_Critics_Loses_Visa/1161197051
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8KRC1KO0.htm

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."