AlterEgo / sent news
Credit Card Firms Cut Off AllofMP3.com
Visa International and MasterCard Inc. have stopped accepting credit card transactions for purchases of online music made on a Russian Web site accused of selling music illegally, officials for both payment systems said Wednesday.
San Francisco-based Visa asked member banks not to process purchases from AllofMP3.com as of Sept. 1, said Simon Barker, a spokesman for the company.
"The action Visa has taken is in line with legislation passed in Russia and with basic international copyright and intellectual property norms," Barker said.
MasterCard, the No. 2 payment system in the world behind Visa, ceased accepting credit card purchases on the Web site in early August, said Chris Harrall, a spokesman for the Purchase, N.Y.-based company.
"MasterCard does not tolerate the use of its network for illegal activity," Harrall said.
Charles Martin, a Washington-based spokesman for Moscow-based Mediaservices, which owns AllofMP3, confirmed that Visa had suspended payment processing services on the site, but he was not aware of any other payment vendors who had decided to do so.
AllofMP3.com typically charges under $1 for an entire album and just cents per track. By contrast, an album at Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store and other licensed services typically costs about $10 and a song 99 cents.
On Wednesday, a message on the payment section of the Web site notified visitors that credit card payment was not available "at the moment." The site directed prospective customers to make a credit card payment on another site, alltunes.com.
That site listed that it accepted payments in Visa and EuroCard/MasterCard.
However, Visa shut down payment processing for that site as of Oct. 1, Barker said.
It was unclear to what extent the actions taken by the credit card companies had affected business on the Web site.
There was no mention of it by Mediaservices officials during an online news conference on Tuesday, although Vadim Mamotin, the firm's director general, said through a translator that the company's business dispute with major recording companies and other copyright owners "has hurt our business."
The Web site operator maintains that by paying royalties to a Russian licensing group, the Web site is in compliance with Russian laws.
The music industry contends that the Russian licensing group doesn't have the authority to collect and distribute royalties.
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Sony BMG Music Entertainment Signs Content License Agreement with YouTube
Alliance Adds One of the World's Largest Music Companies to Growing Roster of Media Companies Working with YouTube to Reach its Massive Audience
NEW YORK, NY and SAN BRUNO, Calif. – October 09, 2006 –YouTube, Inc., a consumer media company that enables people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, and SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, today announced a deal that will make available a wide variety of video content from the music company’s world-renowned library to the YouTube community. YouTube users will be able to interact with videos from a wide array of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT artists ranging from the most important recordings in history to today’s hottest young artists.
In addition, SONY BMG and You Tube will work together to develop new and exciting opportunities which allow users to include certain SONY BMG sound recordings in their own uploads, adding to the Internet’s most vibrant video entertainment destination. As a result of this agreement SONY BMG will be able to fully realize the commercial potential of its content. SONY BMG and YouTube will share revenue from advertising on all SONY BMG music videos that incorporate audio and audiovisual works from the vast SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT library.
“SONY BMG, with its dynamic roster of artists and forward-thinking management team, is exactly the type of media company YouTube seeks to partner with in order to provide the most entertaining service to our users,” said Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube. “Offering our community exciting and creative new ways to interact with SONY BMG artists’ content is a major step for both companies, not just in terms of financial potential, but because it deepens our community’s relationship with the music it loves.”
"With its trademark blend of music, videos and fan generated content, the YouTube environment represents a fascinating new way to deepen the relationship between our artists and their fans," commented Thomas Hesse, President, Global Digital Business, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. "We are pleased to be working with YouTube on this new initiative that respects the rights of artists and copyright holders, while at the same time making our content commercially available to a broader audience than even before."
YouTube recently announced a new content identification architecture, intended to help copyright holders identify their content on YouTube. This architecture will provide SONY BMG the opportunity to authorize and monetize the use of their works within the user-generated content on the site. SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT’s music video library and special artist content will be made available simultaneously with launch of this system, set for the end of this year.
SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT will work with artists and rights holders to embrace this new opportunity to reach a tremendous new audience to promote and distribute their music. SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT will also work with YouTube to expeditiously remove certain copyrighted materials which are not available for exhibition on the site.
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