• The New York Times, Tuesday, December 26, 2006 3:03 PM

The recording industry will be powerless to stop their business model from crashing around them if American courts can't accomplish what international courts have either refused or been unable to do: Shut down the file-sharing sites that pervade the Internet.

Several unnamed recording companies (you could probably guess who) are suing the Russian firm AllofMP3.com, owned by Mediaservices, for selling copyrighted music without permission. A lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in New York last Wednesday. The companies want AllofMP3 to surrender all of its domain names, which would basically close it down.

Use of the American courts system is a last-ditch effort to shut down the Russian site, which charges as little as $2 for music albums, compared to $10 at Apple's iTunes. For its part, AllofMP3 says its service complies with Russian copyright law.

American politicians have lobbied foreign governments like Russia to clamp down on illegal filing-sharing services. In most instances, authorities have agreed to help, but in practice, very little has been accomplished.

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