Visa stops processing for MP3 site at request of RIAA

Dunno how many of you have been following the story of allofmp3.com, a music sales site in Russia, but they license songs to anyone for about 15 cents/song, and it's legal under Russian law, because the way music is licensed is a flat percentage of income, rather than a statutory-set or negotiated rate.

RIAA and other have been trying to get it shut down, and their most recent volley was to somehow convince Visa to stop processing for the site.

BUT... allofmp3.com struck back, and got a judgement from a Russian court saying, as I read it, that Visa is *required* to process for them, because allofmp3 is a legitimately licensed business following russian law in all respects.

What's concerning to me about this is that Visa International caved to RIAA's demands in this case, and I could see a situation where they do the same to the anti-porn forces, the religious right, or whomever. And I doubt that a US court would be as sympathetic and *force* Visa to process for porn as the Russian court did for AllofMP3.com

Here's the link to the story:

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8908/Ru...llofmp3.com%27

Yeah i heard about this a couple of days ago and like you, my first thought was if Visa is going to listen to the RIAA without legal merrit, whats going to happen once the Christian fundies get wind of this :eek:

Regards,

Lee

not the first time visa has caved sadly.. also mastercard has put the foot down in countries where other stuff is perfectly legal and will not all processing for it etc..