The British recording industry got the green light this week to keep Russian music download site AllofMP3.com in its crosshairs.

AllofMP3.com sells downloads of Nelly Furtado's Loose.

The UK High Court gave the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) permission to continue to pursue its copyright claims against the service in court. If its claims are successful, it would only impact AllofMP3.com's business in the UK, but could set a precedent for legal proceedings elsewhere.

AllofMP3.com exists in a quasi-legal state, whereby it charges users for downloads, but sells those downloads for as little as $1 for a full album. The site does not charge by song, but by volume, charging users 2 cents per megabyte.

Site owner MediaServices claims that the service pays the Russian groups responsible for managing royalties, but the music industry has said that those licenses would not apply to users outside of Russia.

"This is an important step forward in our battle against AllofMP3.com," BPI General Counsel Roz Groome said in a statement. "We have maintained all along that this site is illegal and that the operator of the site is breaking UK law by making sound recordings available to UK-based customers without the permission of the copyright owners. Now we will have the opportunity to demonstrate in the UK courts the illegality of this site."

AllofMP3.com offers a catalog of music that includes most popular new releases, including Shakira's Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 and Nelly Furtado's Loose.

With its far-cheaper-than-iTunes prices and no DRM, AllofMP3.com has become the second most popular download site in the UK in recent months, second to only iTunes.