Originally Posted by ScottC
Your logic is of course bogus. The people that upload a torrent do several things that make it clear that it is illegal:
1) Their means of gathering content are illegal (grabbing off TV or using camcorders in a theater)
2) I have yet to see ANY torrent uploader point to a rights organization and tell me that they pay dues to that body. Unless of course you visit some torrent site I've never heard of...
3) With P2P distribution I am receiving the content from 1000's of peers, and I have no way of verifying whether those peers have legal rights to own the content they distribute, in the case of Allofmp3 they DO claim that they pay dues over their content, the only issue unanswered (even by the RIAA) is whether or not it really is illegal to download content from a provider that pays licensing fees to a foreign organization.
The rights organization you keep talking about (ROMS) was
kicked out of CISAC.
"The General Assembly of CISAC decided at its meeting in Seoul on October 2004 to expel Russian organization ROMS from CISAC membership on the grounds that it has been issuing licenses to copyright users without the authority to do so from all relevant copyright owners."
IFPI has made it very clear that allofmp3 has no right to distribute its material.
"... f it is true that the prosecutor has not taken the case this would be very disappointing, considering the blatant and large-scale infringement that continues to take place.”
Here's a long article from a lawyer who appears to know much more than me about copyright. He claims it's illegal.
"The reasoning of those who assert that downloading from allofmp3 is legal ignores basic copyright law and often appears to be nothing more than manipulating the issues involved to arrive at the desired answer. For those seeking cheap alternatives to illegal downloading via P2P and other sources, allofmp3 is an attractive possibility. It is not, however, one that falls within legal boundaries."
Here's an article from slate that concludes it's "probably" illegal.
"2. Is Allofmp3.com actually legal?
Probably not. The discussion above about what Allofmp3.com is allowed to do with international distribution rights assumes the site actually owns those rights. It doesn't—at least not according to the recording industry. "
Here's an article from Jupiter Research claiming slate was irresonsible in qualify the illegal with "probably".
"I'm not trying to say what's moral or not. Or what should be legal or not. But this article runs in Slate's Jurisprudence section, and it ain't very prudent. In fact, it strikes me as bizarrely irresponsible, especially for a mainstream media publisher. And you thought blogs were dangerous."
But you keep telling yourself it's all above board, and different from buying pirated DVD's out of some guy's trunk.