Russian online music store AllOfMP3.com, which takes advantage of loose copyright law to sell MP3s at bargain prices, was recently down for three days. (See cached page here.) It turned out to be down for only a brief time. Slyck reported that it was told by an IFPI spokesperson that the site was "genuinely down for repair." (The IFPI filed a complain against the online store in February of 2005, but Russian prosecutors found it to be legal)

Some found a coincidence between the outage and Russian president Vladimir Putin's comments about intentions to beef up copyright protections. Putin is under pressure to protect intellectual property and is seeking to join the World Trade Organization, and so there were theories that the Kremlin shut down the site to appease is detractors.

What's the controversy over AllOfMP3.com? It sells music according to bandwidth -- for about one dollar per album -- and since Russian law doesn't require it to do so, the company does not pay rights holders or songwriters. The site is not nearly as user friendly as most online music stores, but the files can be purchased in varying bitrates and in various DRM-free formats. Its page at Wikipedia explains how it works (payment, downloading, etc) and the site's legality.

Other Russian digital music stores: MP3Search.ru and MP3stor.com.