A few weeks ago I proclaimed that Allofmp3.com would give up it’s current business model by September 1st. Turns out I was wrong – for now, at least. But things are changing in Russia, at least when it comes to the letter of the law. Russia toughened it’s copyright law back in 2004, but a few key amendments were delayed to take effect today.
These amendments deal with the protection of ponorecordings on the internet – an area that was before left unaddressed, allowing Allofmp3.com and similiar sites to use collective licensing provisions similiar to those a radio station would use for music licensing. Now what exactly is changing today, and which effect will this have on music download platforms? Actually, it’s pretty complicated – which is why I asked an expert.
Michael Newcity is an Associate Professor at the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at Duke University, and he is specialized in Russia’s copyright law. He explained the changes in detail for me for another article I wrote about the subject. Unfortunately I couldn’t quote everything he said in that article, so I decided to share his detailed explanation of the new amendments here:
“2004 AMENDMENTS PARA 3(A): This provision amends Article 16(2) of the 1993 Copyright Law relating to the exclusive rights of the author by including as such a right the right to disseminate the work in a way that any person, regardless of place or time, may have access to it via an interactive method (e.g., the Internet).
