After a recent ruling by a Moscow court that allofmp3 was running in accordance with Russian law, the music download site has announced that it will resume its business again.  Earlier in the month, the Moscow court ruled that allofmp3's former head was not guilty of intellectual property theft nor violated Russian copyright laws.

At present, the allofmp3.com domain is back up, however, only the news service section of the website is currently active.  The site plans to offer a wider selection of music and enhanced payment top-up procedures when it resumes its music service.

While the website pays 15% of its profit to the Russian Organisation for Multimedia and Digital Systems (ROMS), the U.S. Commerce Department in 2006 called the website the world's largest highest-volume online seller of pirated music, since it does not make contracts with the music industry.  In July, the website was shut down just ahead of a summit between the Russian and American presidents.

While the ROMS does pay out royalties to the labels who sign up for them, all the major labels refuse to respond to requests to collect their dividends.  Instead, the IFPI sued allofmp3 on behalf of the major labels for over a trillion dollars.

Further info can be read in this Reuters story.  Thanks to DamnedIfIknow for letting us know about this news saying:  Well, I wouldn't call it a "pirate" music site if the court has ruled that it's legal.