I haven’t been able to find information on the largest lawsuit in history but I’m sure this one is right up at the top. The RIAA (yes, I was just as shocked as you 
) is suing the website AllofMP3.com on behalf of EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music, and Warner Music in the amount of $150,000 for each of the 11 million songs that were downloaded from June to October of 2006. That comes to a lawsuit totaling $1.65 trillion!
For those of you who have been hibernating for the last few months I’ll give you a quick run down on the excitement that AllofMP3.com has had. They are a Russian music website that operates legally in Russia but it is deemed illegal in other countries, such as the United States, because they don’t pay royalties to the artists. The RIAA continues to do everything in their power to shutdown the site but their attempts fail one after another. The United States even went as far as blocking Russia’s entrance into the World Trade Organization (WTO) until they shutdown the site.
I find this whole situation to be pretty amusing and love hearing about all of the new threats that continue to evolve. Oh yeah, and if you haven’t joined AllofMP3.com or you need to add more money to your account they’ll give you a 20% bonus (until January 14, 2007). So there has never been a better time to get your music from a Russian site!
Sorry, all I can do is L M F A O.
Trillion is 1 and 12 zeroes, right?
1.650.000.000.000 dollars.
Hmm, I’m sure they will NOT pay those money, because they just DON’T have 1,6 Trillion dollars. This is Russia (not America), everything is possible here. They will never pay money, no single dollar… Me Russian too, just living outside Russia, but anyway, I know what is Russian mentality.
$150,000 a song is just bull and they know it
They shouldn’t get ANY money!
and if they did, they should only get the amount of money they lost. say 5 bucks a song
not 150,000.
So where is a verifiable link to this figure? Anyone?
verifiable links
[tinyurl.com]
[tinyurl.com]
[tinyurl.com]
So the united states has legal jurisdiction over russian companies now? and since when are Russian citizens responsible for following united states law.
Wow, company sued for more then the entire gross domestic product of the country it is located in.
first, russian people just ignore it, the people who are being sued, wont come to states, so RIAA lost by defualt.
And even if RIAA somehow gets to the russia, then the people who are sued, just leave the country, or buy a new identity, or just say nasty word, and leave.
Dont worry, the Russian mafia will protect AllofMp3.
Wow, I say we just boycott these people. Guess I need to break out the boycott sony domain I own which isn’t being used.
I hate the music industry this is crazy… just a bunch of greedy foolz.
Anyone else repeating that total to themselves in the voice of Dr. Evil?
Hey, if you are okay with paying a company in Russia to steal MP3s for you go for it. They have never proven that any of the money they collect gets back to the artists.
math that large hurts my addled brain (even though you get to cross off a bunch of zeros). is that $5500 per person living in the US?
Allofmp3.com regularly sends a check to ROMS for the rights to the songs they deliver. ROMS regularly sends RIAA a check for the same amout. RIAA has yet to cash any of their checks. If any artists has not gotten their royalty from Allofmp3.com it is RIAA’s fault, not Allofmp3.com’s.
Dam, thats a little over the top.
I received this in some sort of press release looking thing…but it looks like the next post after yours has several links you may find more reputable.
Interesting. I never heard that they did that but I’m sure the royalties aren’t what is expected, otherwise there wouldn’t be a problem, right?
The Media And Film Industry of America (mafia) is at it again. I hope they rot in hell for what they do to the artists. If I find music I like, I send money to the musician responsible, bypassing the mafia altogether. I encourage others to do the same.
i’d file for bankruptcy.. hahah
^ the RIAA they are crooked scum. They cheat the artists they claim to protect and they knowingly file false claims and they even forge the signatures of dead people on documents. Really, they should be going to prison and the money should go from allofmp3.com directly to the artists and the RIAA can go find somebody else to cheat.
Ask yourself this question; are the contributions entertainers make to society worth the monetary compensation they receive?
I believe that’s what they call punitive damages…
The idea is not to receive money from AllOfMp3 but to shut them down and a fine of $1.65×10^12 (I think I got that right) will do that.
artists barely see more than pennies on the music the labels sell for them. the only reason they become rich is if they tour and sell lots of concert tickets and advertising slots.
Perhaps rather than try to fight a problem that can never be stamped out the music companies should get up with the times as this has resulted from them cashing themselves up without looking at copyright for too long
I countries like Sweden and Russia… they pi*s off money hungry americans. That thing with the WTO is funny though… Russia has everything it needs. Oil, food, diamonds, goods, smart people, and nukes.
I love countries that stick it to the US
Regards,
[massdistortion.net]
Copyright law is international, moron.
I’m not 100% but I think copyright law is different in each country. Only recently the UK decided not to increase music copyright from 50 to 95 years as it is in the USA.
[news.bbc.co.uk]
Good Luck giving them your CC# they stole mine and I had to cancel my card.
I HAD been a happy customer for over 2 years untill 3 mos ago.
You’ve been warned – Caveat Emptor
“Copyright law is international, moron”
No it’s not, moran.
Hey your on Techmeme!!
I really wonder if the suit will hold weight since the site is Russian and the suit is in the US.
This is really funny. I would love to see them try to collect.
if you are truly worried about ‘media companies’ suing people and shutting down peer-to-peer file sharing stop giving them YOUR money to pay THEIR lawyers. stop going to your local umpteen-plex and giving them your money to watch the latest lame remake or sequel. stop buying and renting their over-priced dvd’s and tapes. stop purchasing any music from any source until the artists get a better share of the revenue generated. stop buying their over-priced video games. don’t buy any product advertised on the television networks they control.
if the millions of people who share files and access the internet on a daily basis (and all of their friends) would just stop giving money to the ‘media companies’ for one week it just might make a difference.
No it’s not! You’re the Fu©kin’ moron! There is not ONE SINGLE LAW the USA can make and expect to have it enforced in another country. It’s NOT the USA!! It’s Russia!
Just because you think you’re right, doesn’t make you right.
but they can pay it i think ))
If I was the CEO of one of the companies suing AOM I’d be getting someone on staff to eat my food before me. 24 hours before me. Polonium apparently can be hard to detect.
cheers
Cameron Reilly
CEO, The Podcast Network
[thepodcastnetwork.com]
Whats next?
will the RIAA send in it’s crack squad of millitary commando’s to collect?
will AOM crap their pants?
will britney spears actually record a decent song?
hell no!
i agree with Cameron up there ^^^ sushi anyone?
This is stupid. 1.5 TRILLION dollars? That is more than the ENTIRE music and movie industries COMBINED make in a few YEARS!
Someone needs to put the smackdown on the MPAA and RIAA, and point out that AllOfMP3 has TRIED to give money to the artists in question, the RIAA just keep on refusing because they think it will ‘legitimize’ AllofMP3.
Newsflash to them, it IS legitimate in Russia and the United States as well, since it is outside the United States they do not fall under the United States laws.
*stares*
BAAAAAAAAHahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
What the hell? Please tell me these morons don’t actually expect Russia to give them 1.65 trillion dollars. Because if it were to come down to it, I think they’d nuke us first.
At least, if it were me, and someone asked for $1.65 trillion that they knew I didn’t have to pay.
You know what? Go ahead, Russia. Push the damn button. I will not hold it against you in the afterlife. Our capitalist asses had it coming.
It will be a helluva lot cheaper for AOM to publish a $20M hit money on every RIAA exec and lawyer and see how long they continue their BS when they start getting waxed one by one. Russians have done it before, and I sure as hell hope they’d do it to this bunch of a-holes.
hahahaha. omg, that comment just made my day
Hummm OK I agree the ignorant retards over at RIAA are in NEED of Mental Health Care it seems.
Umm lets see if this makes any Logicle sence at all, not that the RIAA needs to….
1. U.S. Copyright Laws are just that, U.S. Laws and have NO Legal standing ANYWHERE outside the U.S.
2. If you want to file Legal Action against someone in another country thats where you must file it.
2B. The Copyright Violations actions tey take are for the “Recording” and NOT the songs thus they clearly ONLY have the Lables inrerest as a priority.
3. Even if some Brain Dead Judge allows the legal action to continue, U.S. Court rulings are NOT enforcable outside the U.S. (Any Judge allowing this to continue in U.S. Courts could be removed)
3B. Even IF this makes it to U.S. Courts and some Idiott Judge rules in favor of RIAA and RIAA is awarded a Judgement… Ummm who will collect?? Will the RIAA hire some Collection Agency to call them 5 times a day demanding payment? (Remember ANY U.S. Court decision is NOT binding outside the U.S.)
4. Ummm the U.S. has blocked the Russians from Joining WTO unless they shut down the site. EXCUSE ME under U.S. Laws this could be Extortion I think.
5. The RIAA needs to be SHUT DOWN, even ARTIST on the Labels DO NOT like what they are doing!
6. It almost looks like RIAA and U.S. Government are working together to PROVE to the World that the U.S. is the most RETAEDED country in the world.
6B. All the other countries KNOW this so Job Well Done!
I think the RIAA needs to take the madnedd down a notch befor the RIAA is taken out. I know it will NEVER happen but if people would just STOP buying CDs from Major Lables awhile and ARTIST would REFUSE to continue supporting those lables, would it wake them at all that there actions will NO LONGER be TOLORATED?
Anyways its time someone FU#^S the RIAA like they have been Fu#^ing us and Artist all these years.
R eal
I gnorant
A rrogant
A ssholes
hehe… i agree with whoever suggested punitive damages (aimed at shutting the company down, not at reciving money). the ironic thing is that allofmp3.com is most likely more popular than ever thanks to this lawsuit. but seriously. i doubt that the riaa actually expects 1.65 trillion dollars. why make yourself look like a fool with such a large figure? the same point can be made without such a ridiculous lawsuit. as you can see above this post, many people laugh at the proposed sum (although i imagine that it’s somewhat biased. i don’t think that people would post something like “go get a fucking life. the artists deserve money.” they’d get shot down by 100 posts almost instantly.). i feel an inevitable deja vu from when they decided to shut down several tablature and lyric sites. what’ll they do next? shut down all cd production on the grounds that every bit of the money doesn’t go to the artist? that’d be great. ten we’d have to pop out 30 dollars to go to a concert every time we wanted to listen to some music… bahh…
As of todat May 5, 2007 you can still access services from the site. I should also say that this legal action from RIAA will go nowhere as US laws are only enforceable in the US and if they think they will win anything they are more RETARDED than most of us think.
Hi guys
Just found [allOFFmp3.org]
there are more music tracks then allOFmp3.com
Anyone got an update on this?
I don’t think it is anything that went through…I think it was merely a threat. And once AllofMP3 got shutdown there wasn’t really a need to push the lawsuit any further since they knew they wouldn’t get the money.
Alot of you need a little bit of education on the mentality of the lawyers of RIAA.
They don’t expect to be paid. Pure and simple. The point of the staggeringly large amount of 1.65 trillion dollars in punitive damages is merely to make them go: Bankrupt.
Another thing to remember is all the people working at the RIAA have mouths to feed. They’re not greedy, they’re sick of being stolen from. It’s that simple.
“They’re not greedy, they’re sick of being stolen from. It’s that simple.”
That would be the money that they were originally stealing from the artists wouldn’t it?
taf
taf, two wrongs don’t make it right, but i agree.
Um, there is absolutely nothing wrong with stealing something from someone who stole it in the first place.