So, I wanted to listen to the new Snow Patrol album...

[andrewducker]

The easiest way to do so is to pop to AllOfMP3.com and download it. I mean, I'd _like_ to download it from a more reputable place, but there's nowhere that will do so in a non-DRM format, so AllOfMP3.com it is.

Anyway, I wander along, find the album, hit download, and bump into the problem - Visa have stopped supporting payments to AllOfMP3.com. However, they are still taking payments from a number of cards providers - just not any ones I have. A quick scan of the website shows they _are_ taking money from Xrost - who do prepaid cards for use on sites where you don't want to be handing over your credit card (or where you want to buy credit for a friend). And while Xrost won't let me pay by Visa either, they do take payment via BT's Click&Buy. Who I have an account with because they provide the payments service for The Independent's archive/premium articles. Oh, and they get the money out of my Bank of Scotland account via Direct Debit.

So the money is now going Me->Bank of Scotland->BT->XROST->AllOfMP3. I'm in Scotland, as is the Bank of Scotland. The BT site appears to be based in the US. Xrost seem to be based in Germany, and AllOfMP3 are of course based in Russia.

Money laundering through three intermediary companies in four countries, to listen to music of (at best) questionable legality. I'm remarkably amused.

Comments

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

I did exactly the same thing a while back. Just beware - allofmp3 passed on the email addresses I was using with them to some incredibly unpleasant spammers. i started getting 20+ child-rape spams per day till I turned the addresses off.

[dalglir.livejournal.com]

'kin 'ell.

But that's a cleverly sneaky thing you do there - subscribing with an email address whose alias is the service you're subscribing to (therefore allowing you to trace who's passing your email addy onwards).

[aberbotimue.livejournal.com]

Or as I like to call it

www.Tracespam.com

a very usefull service put on by a respected and clever company!

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

I just posted you to cyberprof..

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

a] I've reported you to the police. Expect gas masked and gun-toting SWAT teams to crash through the ceiling in a moment

b] CRIME DOES NOT PAY

c] Now make copies of that music and give it to friends, just to compound the fact.

Did you feel like the Man was making it hard for you to buy music?

[andrewducker]

a) "“We are going to sue AllofMP3.com in the UK courts – we are going to seek a judgment not against the users of the site, but against the site itself.” says the BPI. So I'm not expecting to be taken to court.

b) Crime? Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48) - section 22:

"The copyright in a work is infringed by a person who, without the licence of the copyright owner, imports into the United Kingdom, otherwise than for his private and domestic use, an article which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe is, an infringing copy of the work."
and I believe I'm covered under "other than for his private and domestic"

c) I don't tend to share music with my friends. Although I did make a mix CD for one not that long ago. And as you offered me a Gig of music on Saturday, this does feel a tad hypocritical.

And I don't feel that they're making it _easy_ for me to buy music, certainly. They're either insisting I buy lumps of plastic I have no use for, or that I buy music that's encrypted in a way that is likely to stop me playing it wherever I like.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I illegally download illegal pornography. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I assumed that my offer of music at teh weekend (and indeed, mentions of downloading it myself) made it clear I didn't mean this seriously. Suggest a smiley or something.

I really don't understand why they make it so hard. I was surprised to find out that you couldn't currently go into shops with your branded mp3 player and buy music and get it put onto it right there in the store.

[andrewducker]

It's the internet - I'm not allowed to detect sarcasm - it's the law.

And yeah - you'd imagine that there'd be people who'd want iPods but didn't have computers.

I know that Yahoo in the US were trialling the selling of straight MP3s - but I don't know how well that's going for them.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

:-)

I have the joy of an MP3 unit with audio in jacks and a record facility, so on the odd occasion I want to buy a track I don't care about the format, just get it, play the bugger and record it out through the headphone jack on the PC into my player unit. As all my mp3s are at 128 anyway, any sound quality issues are effectively nil.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

Of course you could have asked if any friends had it that could have dropped it into a shared folder on Messenger for you!

[aberbotimue.livejournal.com]

Unfortunatly, I am going to have to de-freind you. I have to be carful about the sorts I interact with, and this money laudering is a step to far... before i do tho can you still do me a deal on the tactical mistiles.