Russian Site ZML.com Offering $2.99 Movie Downloads

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 19, 2007 - 10:46am.

London - Taking a page out of the playbook of the budget song download site AllofMP3.com, a Russian website called ZML.com has begun offering unprotected downloads of Hollywood movies for about $2.99 each, The Register reported. The site offers about 1,500 titles, such as "Spider-Man 3" and "300," with prices ranging from $1.99 for an iPod-compatible version, to $4.99 for DVD-quality files.

The company claims to be operating legally because it is paying license fees to the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS) -- a similar tack taken by the now defunct AllofMP3.com.

AllofMP3 was shut down in July, just before a meeting between President Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin, following intense pressure from the U.S. government and copyright interests.

The U.S. Trade Representative said sites like AllofMP3 were hampering Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization.

AllofMP3.com's founders are now facing both criminal and civil charges in Russia.

ZML.com does not accept payments directly from Visa or Mastercard, requiring users to first create and add funds to a separate account, The Register reports.

http://www.zml.com

Published in DMW Daily, November 19, 2007

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Comments

Funds

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on August 20, 2009 - 12:46pm.

The money of $39.90 was debited to my checking account the same day that I saw it would be .99 cents for a one day download. So zml does take money without creating a separate account. They do use mastercard.They used mine and I want a refund.I canceled a membership that I did not know I was signing up for.

ZML is a rip off, they are

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on February 1, 2010 - 10:27am.

ZML is a rip off, they are not upfront about costs, lots of the downloads are actually pirated straight out of movie theaters. All ways to contact them usually end in "error" They "membership" is charged out under a different name each month, so looking at bank receipts they all look different, and generally the charges differ also. I too signed up for what I thought was a one day trial, and then discovered two months later I was billed for a full "membership" each month even though I had been inactive since I discovered the first day what they offered. I tried to contact them, but to no avail. Buyer Beware