AllOfMP3 man gets off scott free

THE MAN BEHIND legendary Russian music site AllOfMP3.com has managed to emerge unscathed from a prosecution brought in his home country.

Denis Kvasov is the man behind the company which ran the site, and Russian authorities prosecuted him for breaching copyright laws after being pressed by US entertainment companies including NBC and Time Warner.

Although the Russians agreed to shut down the site as a condition of its accession to the World Trade Organisation, it seems Russia's independent Judiciary had other ideas about its legality.

Judge Yekaterina Sharapova said in judgment: "The prosecution did not succeed in presenting persuasive evidence of [Kvasov's] involvement in infringing copyright law." What this really means is that Russia has such poorly written and antiquated copyright laws, a domestic prosecution didn't ever really have much chance of succeeding.

Quite what Kvasov will do now is unclear, or what response the US and its media companies will have to the outcome. What seems certain is that Kvasov is out of trouble and free to start something else. Should movie studios be worried? µ