Special to ag-IP-news Agency
LONDON - IFPI, the organization that promotes the interests of the international recording industry worldwide, announced in a press release that the police raided and shut down an online voucher system allegedly used by the illegal Russian music download website allofmp3.com to try and sidestep the removal of legitimate payment services in the UK and Europe.
The action follows a pan-European investigation, conducted by global recording industry body IFPI and UK record companies' association the BPI, which led to the arrest of a 25-year-old male in Bow, London.
The individual was allegedly the UK-based European agent for allofmp3.com, facilitating the sale of digital downloads by advertising and selling vouchers through auction sites such as eBay and the website allofmp3vouchers.co.uk. That website has now been taken down from the internet. The vouchers contained a code that allowed UK and European consumers to access and download music illegally from the allofmp3.com website.
Charging £10 per voucher, the suspect was believed to be taking payment from European customers and transferring the cash into various offshore accounts operated by the site's Russian owners.
Metropolitan Police officers seized computer equipment and paperwork for further investigation. Early indications suggest the pirate operation may have generated criminal proceeds for the Russian website running into tens of thousands of pounds.
As the unlicensed sale of music is a criminal offence in the UK, police executed the raid under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 - legislation introduced into UK law in January 2007 specifically to combat online fraud. This is the first time the new fraud legislation has been used in a copyright-related case.
Allofmp3.com is a Russian-based music website that sells copies of music tracks that it does not have the rights to reproduce or distribute Allofmp3.com is illegal under international treaties and copyright law in the UK and Russia.
Criminal proceedings are being pursued by prosecutors in Moscow against the former managing director of the service.
