And it's finally over. After AllOfMP3.Com officially shut down last year (and even though the owner was acquitted of any wrongdoing in a Russian trial), the RIAA has finally dropped the suit officially, saying that they were in effect victorious.

Unfortunately, as AppScout notes, "that still leaves a host of Russian music sites that say they're willing to pay royalties to the artists under Russian law, but whose fees place them substantially under the rates charged by American and European vendors of downloadable music.

"Case in point? AllTunes.com, which sells tracks for just 15 cents apiece, or MP3Sparks, which suspiciously emerged just as AllofMP3.com was shutting down. The latter site advertises Madonna's latest, Hard Candy, for 18 cents per track or $2.34 for the album (in 192-Kbit/s quality, unprotected.)" In other words, prepare for the onslaught of clone sites, Kazaa-style.