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RIAA Settlement: Possible Consumer Payback
KoopaTroopa writes "Over on Ars Technica they are running a story about the RIAA handing out consumer payments as a settlement to a price-fixing class action. If you bought a recording at retail between Jan. 1, 1995, and Dec. 22, 2000, claim your money." As usual, the lawyers win a lot more than you will, but the process is pretty painless if you'd like to collect part of the settlement money; you may recall this earlier story about the settlement.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo now my uber $20 payment will go down to $5 because you'll slashdot the payment site
THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS The proposed Settlement reached by the parties to the Litigation settles and resolves the Litigation against the Defendants in its entirety and was granted preliminary approval by the Court on October 21, 2002. Cash and Non-Cash Consideration Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement with Distributor Defendants, they will pay Plaintiffs a combination of Cash and Non-Cash Consideration. The Cash payments total $64,300,000 and the Non-Cash Consideration totals $75,700,000. The Cash payments will be deposited into the Settlement Fund. The Non-Cash Consideration, consisting of approximately 5.5 million music CDs of a broad selection of genres, will be the subject of a cy pres Distribution discussed below. The Settlement Agreement provides that the Distributor Defendants individually pay the following amounts: (1) EMD shall pay $6,500,000 in Cash and $8,500,000 in Non-Cash Consideration; (2) WEA shall pay $13,650,000 in Cash and $15,750,000 in Non-Cash Consideration; (3) Universal shall pay $18,850,000 in Cash and $21,750,000 in Non-Cash Consideration; (4) Sony shall pay $12,523,500 in Cash and $14,701,500 in Non-Cash Consideration; and (5) BMG shall pay $12,776,500 in Cash and $14,998,500 in Non-Cash Consideration. As provided in the Settlement Agreements entered into with the Retailer Defendants, each has agreed to pay Plaintiffs the following in Cash Consideration to be deposited into the Settlement Fund: (1) Trans World shall pay $800,000. (2) Musicland shall pay $2,000,000. (3) Tower shall pay $275,000 in twelve consecutive monthly installments unless Tower should merge with, consolidate with, or be acquired by another corporation or individual, or if Tower should sell or transfer a Controlling Percentage of its capital stock to another corporation or individual, or if Tower should sell at least 70% of the fair market value of its United States assets to another corporation or individual, in which case Tower shall pay $325,000, less any cash installment payments previously made to Plaintiffs. The Non-Cash Consideration will consist of prerecorded music CDs. For purposes of determining the amount of Non-Cash Consideration, such Consideration shall be valued at twenty percent (20%) less than manufacturers' suggested retail price as of the date such Non-Cash Consideration was selected by Lead Counsel for the Plaintiffs for inclusion among the selections available for distribution.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
That's because the last 4 digits of your SSN are guaranteed to be unique.
You do understand that there are only 9999 possiblities for the last four digits? I'd hardly call that unique.