Based on the face of its operations, AllofMP3.com's response is understandable to essentially being 'summoned' to appear in court in New York. Also on the appearance of its operation inside of Russia, since Russia itself had never been able to prosecute the organization in any fashion to this point, this makes it appear the company operates legally. Since there was some level of verification (although not totally clear) the company did make payments to ROMS (which was the one charged with dividing and distributing the royalty payments), and a 'payment' to the U.S. representative(s) was made (and refused), now this lawsuit emerged. Because of this series of events, AllofMP3.com's response seems appropriate to the (normally) outlandish monetary damages sought from it.
The wildcard in this equation is that is was reported in the article from El País (Madrid, Spain) about the "Russian-Iranian Romance" on the 14th of March, 2001, that Vladimir Putin's strategy was one of finding any way to fill the country's exhausted coffers. So, with money being one of his few true motivations, if there is any kind of internal Russian prosecution against AllofMP3.com, it will be on that basis--not because the organization is breaking the law. It will be interesting to see if AllofMP3 can essentially ignore the lawsuit, unless and until it is properly filed against in Russia.
