The Russian government promised the U.S. that it would do something about AllofMP3 as part of the criteria for its entry into the World Trade Organization. (AllofMP3 claims to be legal under Russian law because it pays royalties to a Russian collection society, but with Russia trying to join the WTO, American interests have a new way to exert copyright pressure.)
Earlier today, it appeared that the Russians had finally pulled the plug on the cut-rate MP3 store, with TechCrunch reporting that the site had been down for 8 consecutive hours.
The site is now back online, for the moment anyway, although users in America might have to resort to some fairly tricky manuevers in order to deposit money into their accounts.
