You may have heard of the extremely popular, but thorn-in-the-side of the music industry AllofMP3.com. Well after selling non-DRM’d MP3’s to the masses for dirt cheap (they didn’t pay royalties), the Russians are at it again – this time offering movie downloads for $1.99. After AllofMP3 was shut down, it was re-branded & re-launched as MP3Fiesta and continues to sell music online. And now they’ve launched this new movie download service, called ZML, which will most definitely be on Hollywood’s hit list.
Their terms of service imply they’re following the Russian Organization for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS) policies (although ROMS won’t recognize the organization if this goes down like it did with AllofMP3):
You can’t buy movies on the site if it violates the laws of your country.
Yes, this statement is pretty silly and no, it doesn’t mean you can legally purchase movies from ZML.com or that they’re legally permitted to sell them. But they’ll move a ton of movies here until they get shut down.
The site offers thousands of movies and the downloads are compatible with all the major devices including iPods, Zunes, and DivX players. While I think this would be the perfect model (DRM-free and usable in all devices) for movie download sites, I don’t think purchasing movies from ZML is a good idea. Without paying studio royalties, ZML looks like it’s unethical and illegal as well.
Brent enjoys sharing his reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media. Check out more at Brent Evans Geek Tonic.
It’s probable worth noting that the allofmp3 folks always maintained that they ‘where’ paying royalties to the inappropriate Russian organization, but that organization kept getting rebuffed when it tried to distribute the money (such as it was) to other organizations. The point being is that they where investigated repeatedly and always found to be acting withing Russian law, it wasn’t until substantial legal rewrites took place and vast political pressure was brought to bear did they have shut down and reinvent. A company operating in a sovereign country is obligated to follow their laws, not ours in the US. Course the US is doing it’s best to change that.
Just to correct you, AllOfMP3.com did not reopen as “MP3Fiesta”. They reopened as “MP3Sparks.com”. Site and all look EXACTLY the same, just a different name and color scheme.
MP3Fiesta is a completely different company / website.
Just a note on zml. Good service, but too many bugs. I downloaded one movie “Fight Club” where some Russian translator started talking right in the middle of the movie. I have though, downloaded other movies that were perfect. YMMV. You have to check out the short promo’s b-4 buying. Sometimes they tell the story, if you get my meaning…..
ZML is definetly the wrong site to download movies from. I tried their “trial account” they instead charged me for 59 usd. Which isn’t even what they claim to charge for the premium package. After I paid I found that I couldn’t download anything because the site was having technical difficulties. I tried to contact them saying I could not download anything and I only had a single day membership, and they responded with “if you upgrade to premium…” so I then went to cancel the membership and contacted my bank I found they had charged me way more than they had advertised.
Buyer Beware
I used to download several movies from zml.com but after it was closed I use this site http://movies34.com/ .
It has severe bugs but I’m satisfied with it
yes. jack your absolutely true i used to buy movies online too from zml how come other sites like zml is still running today? why zml alone?
yes its probable worth noting that the allofmp3 folks always maintained that they ‘where’ paying royalties to the inappropriate Russian organization, but that organization kept getting rebuffed when it tried to distribute the money to other organizations.