2005.05.11

Russian MP3 sites

Wed, 11 May 2005 09:35:08 CDT --- (Web)

I am in a quandary whether to download Patti Smith's Horses for 89 cents from mp3search.ru. Is this legal and/or ethical?

Technical legality is not such an issue for me since it is probably not even legal for me to rip music from my own CDs for use on my MP3 player (at least this is true in the UK - not sure about Mexico). Downloading from the Russians is probably not legal even if they have a legitimate license to sell the songs in Russia (which is in dispute). This is because online purchases from a foreign website probably count as commercial rather than private imports (same as if I ordered a CD by mail-order), so I would need to pay import duty and more importantly would need a license for the import of copyright material.

What about ethics? I would happily pay a higher price for the music from a more legitimate source. However, I cannot use any of the big download sites (itunes, napster, rhapsody, etc) because:

1. They are not available from Mexico. I could always go through a US-based proxy I suppose, but that would be a pain (and also of dubious legality).
2. They are not available in linux. Again, there is a sort of workaround in Jon Johannsen's PyTunes but again of dubious legality (using it would certainly be in breach of ITunes' Terms & Conditions). More importantly, you need to use a Windows machine to initially register with ITunes anyhow, which would be a pain.