Russian Music Services legal or illegal?

Our policy is to refrain from paying attention to illegal services. Our website however has reviews of several Russian download services. Many believe these services are illegal, but there is a different side to this. Russian Services could well be legal and legislation in some countries allows people to download from these services. This is combination with the fact that these stores are about the only ones that sell DRM free popular music made us decide to review them. Let us explain the legal ins and outs.

The controversy
The Western Music industry claims these Russian sites are illegal because they sell music without their approval. The Russian Services however state their business is in compliance with Russian legislation, because they have been licensed by Russian collecting societies like Roms and FAIR. Allomp3 has explained their position in The Legality of the AllOfMP3 pay service

Russian rules
Russian Copyright Law allows collecting societies to give out licenses for selling music without prior approval of every single right holder. A copyright owner however can ask to exclude music from these licenses on the condition that he can prove he owns the copyrights.

This video about a court case against a former owner of Allofmp3 contains an explanation of the current legal situation.

Copyrights and payments
The website selling the music has to pay 15% of their earnings to the collecting society.
Roms and Fair probably have a lot of money waiting for Western artists, but since their record companies refuse to do business with these collecting societies, no money has been paid out so far.

Is it legal to download music from these services?
It is impossible to give an answer that applies to every country. It totally depends on your local legislation. In some countries you can legally download music from these services as long as the music is for private use. In most countries the situation is unclear. Some say you can, others say you cannot. That is how lawyers earn money; they can defend just about any theory. It is up to a judge to decide who is right. As far as we know no steps have been taken against users.

Right holders can ask Russian collecting agencies to exclude their works; why haven’t they done this?
We are not sure. Our guess is Western Music Industry doesn’t not want to deal with these societies at all. Or maybe it is because proving they own the rights seems to be hard for record companies. November 2005 Universal Music initiated a lawsuit in Russia but was unable to prove its intellectual property rights to the music. Universal Music revoked its claim, they were not able to have the works excluded from ROMS' licenses. A clear shot in the foot, because according to Allofmp3 this prevents Universal from starting any further court cases in Russia with regard to the music. See chapter 16 in Allofmp3's faq.

Should I use these services?
That is completely up to you. If you’re not comfortable with using these services, don’t do it. We do not take stands. Judges are the only ones that can decide who is right and wrong. So far no judge in Russia has declared the services illegal. As long as this is the case we will keep informing you about these download stores.

Feeling uncomfortable because the artists don’t receive any money?
This is a good reason to stay away from Russian download stores. On the other hand, why don’t you solve this by paying the artist directly? Put a dollar bill for every album you have downloaded in an envelope and send it the corresponding artist. You might even add a letter in which you explain why you have done this. A dollar per album is probably more than artists receive for sales over iTunes and other Western music stores.