RE: Sony CDs, DRM and Windows Media Center Edition...

["Ian Lowe" <ianlowe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Calum Morrell
>
> Yes, pay for your illegal music .. because that makes so much sense.

Educate yourself on the issue Calum.

I spent a good bit of time digging into this issue, including phoning the
Customs helpline.

Here's a quick summary: (feel free to check it out yourself)

>From the museekster FAQ: (http://www.museekster.com/allofmp3faq.htm)

How can Allofmp3 be this cheap?

"Copyright organizations in Russia, unlike most of their colleagues
abroad,
are willing to close favorable deals with online music services. For one
thing copyrights for downloads in Russia are more or less equal to the
rights radio stations have to pay for broadcasting music.

But the most important factor is that one US dollar is worth lots of
rubles.
In Russia CDs cost about 100 rubles ($3). So to Russians Allofmp3 is in
fact
almost as expensive as iTunes to Americans."

The service was investigate in Mar 2005, and no charges were brought. It is
100% legal in Russia.

UK citizens are legally able to purchase items from the Net, if you
classify
this as a data service (which it probably is) then you have *zero*
liability
for import duty. If you classify it as an audio CD, that's 3.5% - except
there's no physical media, so it probably can't be classified that way.

Grey imports for personal use are legal. The only time they are illegal is
if you try to resell them.

Sometimes it really pays to actually go and read the legal position, rather
than just making assumptions.

HMRC are pretty darn helpful if you phone up for advice.