U.S. Trade Rep: Russian MP3 Store Barrier to WTO Accession

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 5, 2006 - 4:48pm.

Washington - The U.S. Trade Representative has called on Russia to shutter music download store AllofMP3.com, pointing to it as an impediment to the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Reuters reported. Susan Schwab previously identified the site -- which sells songs for pennies -- as the "poster child" for online music piracy. "I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone's intellectual property rights," U.S. Trade Representative Schwab told Reuters. The recording industry has been trying for some time to pressure Russian authorities to shut down AllofMP3.com, but despite an investigation that found the site is breaking Russian laws, prosecutors in Moscow have not taken action thus far against the company. The topic will likely be resurrected next week at another meeting between U.S. and Russian officials on WTO accession.
http://tinyurl.com/e9v27 (Reuters)
http://www.allofmp3.com