Website AlloMP3.com stopped providing music files to its clients, the site’s registered users have recently reported to UrBC representatives. When one tries to download a file, the system responds by saying that the ordering service is temporarily unavailable as the site is currently under construction and by giving apologies for the inconvenience.


According to website TECHLABS, on Tuesday, June 6, 2006, the British Record Industry's Trade Association, BRI, released a report claiming that downloading files using AlloMP3.com is illegal; the company isn’t going to prosecute the users, though. The sound recording industry executives say that the site had no permission to sell digital music.


‘According to British legislation, AlloMP3.com is an illegal website, so the downloading is illegal as well,’ says BPI’s General Counsel Roz Groome. ‘We intend to sue AlloMP3.com, but we only mean to punish the site, not its users.’


The site representatives disagree with the charges presented against them and claim to have all the licenses they must have. AlloMP3.com is England’s second most frequently visited music files resource (beaten only by iTunes) with its 14%-share of the market. One track only costs seven cents, the whole album around 2 dollars ($1.88).


AlloMP3.com obtained its licenses from ROMS, Russian Multimedia and Internet Society, and Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively (FAIR). Yet these licenses do not cover the foreign users.


Some experts believe the demise of the site was initiated by the Russian Government. Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to put an end to piracy and underproduction of author’s rights.