Moscow's Cheremushkin District Court dismissed on Wednesday the accusations of copyright infringement brought to Denis Kvasov, due to prosecutors’ poor arguments. The former owner of digital music site AllofMP3.com and general director of online digital music company MediaServices between 2003 and 2005 was brought to court by a lawsuit coming from EMI, NBC Universal and Time Warner.

The presiding judge, Yekaterina Sharapova explained her decision claiming that the plaintiffs hasn’t brought enough proof to demonstrate the infringement they sustained.

“This is an unusual case, and prosecutors have to be careful in collecting evidence in connection with intellectual rights violations. I want to draw particular attention to the sloppy job done by prosecutors in collecting and analyzing the facts,” she said.

During the trial, Kvasov demonstrated that fees were paid to a local organization, Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMA), though many Western firms don’t recognize it as a relevant organization and refused any royalties.

The head of Russian’s anti-piracy organization, Konstantin Zemchenko stated that the legal court has settled “very bad precedent”. The International Federation of Phonographic Industry expressed its disappointment regarding the court’s easily verdict and promised to appeal the decision.

AllofMP3.com offered music for far smaller fees than others, for a track one having to pay only 0.10$, one full album being sold with one dollar.

The site was closed earlier in July mainly because it represented a major hindrance in the negotiations between Russia and the US over Russia’s admission into the World Trade Organization, the protection and respect of intellectual property being a significant issue.

The international officials appears more optimistic, Andrew Somers, president of American Chamber of Commerce expressed his belief that the Russian authorities understood and taken into account the importance of intellectual property: “The fact that AllofMP3.com, the notorious intellectual-rights abuser, was closed down, presumably under pressure from the Russian government, shows that the authorities are taking the threat seriously.”

He also explained the Court’s decision by highlighting that copyright infringement lawsuits aren’t ordinary in Russia and that might have been a drawback in prosecutors’ preparation for the case.