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.

Comments

No thanks RIAA

[typical geek]

I'd rather rationalize my mp3 theft by saying CD prices are too high.

Re:No thanks RIAA

[quintessent]

What does getting a check for a few cents in the mail have to do with resolving the CD pricing issue? The RIAA was fixing prices then, and they have only pushed them higher since.

Part of their guilt came from their prohibition against any store advertising CDs below a certain price. Strangely, I haven't seen much of a change.

In any case, CDs are priced WAY too high. Now whether it's ok to copy based on that is another story.

Also, don't you find it strange that each time you back up your data to a CD, you have just paid a tax to the RIAA?

been around for a while

[arson1]

That site has been up for months. But wait, if everyone trieds to collect, and the payment is less that $5/ person, then it goes to a charity (I'm guessing the the EFF), not the people. We can't let that happen! ;)

Sorry

[cporter]

They want a lot of information. Date of birth? Part of my SSN? Sorry. Keeping that private is worth more than $20.

I'll just download a few CDs from a P2P and call it even.

Re:Sorry

[arson1]

you think that information is private? Everyone knows my birthday, you get more presents that way.

Not guarenteed.

[gmiller123456]

Note that you're not guarenteed to get anything. They've apparently already settled on how much they'll pay, and it'll be divided amongst everyone who signs up. It it gets down the less than $5/person, all of it goes to charity.

Dear Hillary,

[grub]

Please keep the few dollars you've earned from me as I've downloaded much, much more than that and my conscience is getting to me.

Thank you.

Big whoop ...

[nucal]

Cash Distribution

The cash paid by the Defendants, after the payment of attorneys' fees, litigation and Settlement administration costs, shall be distributed to consumers who purchased Music Products. The number of claims filed will determine the actual amount of the individual refund but will not exceed $20.00 per claimant. If the number of claims filed would result in refunds of less than $5.00 per claimant, there will be no cash distribution to individual consumers. Rather, the cash portion of the Settlement shall be distributed to not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs for the benefit of consumers who purchased Music Products.

This kind of settlement won't benefit consumers directly. Even if you could locate six year old receipts, the odds are pretty good you won't get a direct settlement out of this.

Re:No thanks.

[k3v0]

i thought the same thing but then i realized you can get all that stuff pretty easily already. you may as well get 5 bucks

Buy a CD

[night_flyer]

get 5.00 back in the laswsuit

buy 100 CDs get 5.00 back in the lawsuit...

that means I got overcharged 2 cents for each of my CDs...

how about they lower the prices instead?

Amen

[PotatoMan]

That was exactly my feeling when I got to the sign-up page. I didn't mind some of the questions, but when I realized they had enough info to build my SSN from, and that the info was not secure, I started wondering if this site is real or not.

I guess we'll know when the 'identity theft' ring goes into action.

Preach it, Lamont!

I just love the bias-free journalism

[falloutboy]

"As usual, the lawyers win a lot more than you will, but the ..."

This may come as a huge surprise, but the lawyers actually earned that money. All you had to do was fill out a form on the web.

Re:I just love the bias-free journalism

[quintessent]

This may come as a huge surprise, but the claimants have been cheated out of a lot of money, and are only getting a tiny fraction of it back. Whether the lawyers earned it, I can't say. Often, they don't.

For example, I read that the lawyers involved in the tobacco settlement ended up with about $60000 USD per hour of work. Something tells me they were overpaid, even if I fully supported suing big tobacco. Nobody works hard enough to deserve $60000 per hour.

No thanks RIAA,already gave at <insrt-store>

[trentfoley]

Considering I pay the RIAA with every cdr I use, and that less than 1% of my cdr usage is for music, I feel that I am giving the RIAA enough already. That's all the justification I need.

How can this be a Class Action suit?

[Newer Guy]

How can this be a Class Action Suit when the RIAA has no class? Crass action would be more accurate...

quite whining and read the form

[endoboy]

they don't ask for your social security #, they ask for the last 4 digits. They also don't ask for mother's maiden name

If you're unwilling to give them your name and address, how precisely do you wish for them to send you the $$$?

Re:quite whining and read the form

[k3v0]

social security numbers are decided based on your birth state and other info. this article is pretty interesting http://www.howstuffworks.com/social-security-numbe r.htm

Breakdown...

[goingincirclez]

Purchases of overpriced CD albums from 1995-2000 (that turned out to little more than one-hit-wonder crap): > $200

Settlement from class-action lawsuit (regarding the purchases of overpriced one-hit wonder crap):
The cost of filling out a marketing infomation form (to get your refund from one-hit wonder crap): Dead trees and spam

Trying out mp3's before wasting any more money on hard copy: Priceless

There are some things that are a ripoff. For everything else, there's P2P.

AUGHHH! NOOOOOO!

[Maeryk]

Dont get in on the suit. Next thing you know Lars Ulrich will be personally writing on you to demand 1 penny from the settlement because the price fixing made Moneygru^H^H^H^H^etallica lose
money and the money coming from the settlement will make them earn less from the distributor for their next album and soon James will be kicking in your door demanding money and spontaneously combusting all over your shiznit!

Maeryk

They're still doing it

[rossz]

I would assume they settled out of course instead of paying this as part of a judgement. If they had gone the whole distance in court they would have had to pay refunds AND stop price fixing. I haven't seen any drop in CD prices, so it's obvious they haven't changed their practices one bit.

No doubt the RIAA attornies realized they would lose the case and be forced to sell music at reasonable prices. They can't have that! So settle for a few measly millions, instead.

Re:No thanks RIAA,already gave at

[aridhol]

I don't know how much you pay, but here are the numbers for Canada. The CCFDA (Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access) is trying to fight it.

Huh?

[autopr0n]

Do you live in canada? If not, why are you using "music" CD-Rs rather then "data" ones for your music? (the only diffrence between the two is that music disks will work in special music drives, have serial copy protection (no copies of copies) and are taxed by the RIAA. Data CDs work in music players, have no SCP, and cost only a few cents, in general)

Uhh, we didn't have to earn the money

[cmoney]

It was ours to begin with. Record companies were found to be overcharging customers and the courts took action to give it back to consumers. So the lawyers did some work so they should be compensated for their work, I agree, but implying that I should have to earn my money back is rediculous!

Signing also says you agree.

[nurb432]

If you sign this you also agree in whole to the agreement, with what apears to be no future recourse.

I say *noone* sign and we fight for whats really far.

A free cd ? bah thats not fair settlement.

Re:Signing also says you agree.

[poot_rootbeer]

In fact, everyone should go beyond just passively not claiming their share of this settlement, and actually submit the appropriate paperwork to exclude yourselves, in essence rejecting the settlement. We all know this isn't a fair compensation, and the more people who speak out and say so the better the chances that a more equitable settlement will be reached.

Re:Signing also says you agree.

[agrounds]

In fact, everyone should go beyond just passively not claiming their share of this settlement, and actually submit the appropriate paperwork to exclude yourselves, in essence rejecting the settlement. We all know this isn't a fair compensation, and the more people who speak out and say so the better the chances that a more equitable settlement will be reached.

I couldn't agree more! I'll even take the liberty of helping this along:

Just so you don't have to find the means of doing this:
From the settlement:

If you do not wish to be bound by the terms of the proposed Settlement described in this Notice, you may request to be excluded from the Settlement. To do so, you MUST send a written request for the exclusion to:

Compact Disc MAP Antitrust Litigation Administrator
Post Office Box 1643
Faribault, Minnesota 55021-1643

Your request for exclusion must be postmarked by or before March 3, 2003, must clearly state that you want to be excluded from the Settlement, and must provide your full, legal name(s), address, telephone number, and the name and number of this Litigation (In re: Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation, MDL Docket No. 1361). NO REQUEST FOR EXCLUSION WILL BE CONSIDERED VALID UNLESS ALL OF THE INFORMATION DESCRIBED ABOVE IS INCLUDED IN ANY SUCH REQUEST.

Re:Ah it's about time something is done!

[Creepy]

yeah, but distrobution and retail markups make up a good chunk, as well. As you said, artists usually end up with squat (songwriters get paid better than artists, but artists/songwriters still get paid squat). The good, low risk money was in becoming a songwriter and NOT a musician/performer - they make 10 cents a song rather than 1 cent (you may need to adjust that number for 8 years of inflation). This rate is set by some organization, I think ASCAP in America, but it's been a while since I dealt with it.

Remember that retail stores typically double the prices, so your $15 CD is bought by them for $7.50, ~$3-4 is taken by the distributor, unless the record company is also the distributor (Time Warner, for instance), and the remaining $4.00 is split between the artist and the record company, usually 98% recording company, 2% artist. The record company then claims most of their money was spent on promotional and distrobution costs (which may also get taken out of the artist's paycheck).

Record companies claim to take the risk, which they do, to a degree, by fronting money for recording, but I seriously doubt many of them don't break even, as they still expect the artist to pay back expenses out of their 2%, and if they don't break even they "lost" money. Major artists can get 20-50% of the cash rather than 2%, but I don't know any of them (I know a lot of bankrupt bands, tho).

Re:I concur, RIAA still gets bled

[Golias]

Even if you only see $5, it adds up to a large penalty against RIAA

Holy shit, the ignorance flying around here is blinding today. Sorry to single you out, but you are one of many who seems to completely misunderstand what you are signing up for here.

1. The RIAA loses nothing. This is a lawsuit against a group of record labels. Yes, the RIAA lobbies on their behalf, but if anything this will result in the labels investing more money into the RIAA, to help insure that they don't get stung like this again over something.

2. Your signing up does not mean more money gets added to the penalty. The penalty was already settled by the ambulance-chasing lawyers who set up this class action... and it ain't much. You signing up just means the tiny fraction of the settlement that actuallly goes to those who were "damaged" by high CD prices gets divided up more thinly.

3. The settlement didn't do jack shit about high CD prices. Go to your local record store, and notice that albums that used to cost $13 about two years ago are now going for $17. Like almost all corporate class-action lawsuits, the lawyers get rich convincing you that you got "free money" coming, but the reality is that the costs of litigation and penalties are typically passed on to you, the consumer, while the handful of lawyers who suckered you into helping them make the suit look legitimate are making off like bandits... which is what they are.

If you want to fight the RIAA, give money (more than $5 would be nice) to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or 2600's legal defense fund, or Senator Hatch's campaign fund. Signing up for this settlement just makes you a participant in the over-litigious culture we are rapidly becoming, while doing nothing about the problem other than make you feel like you are doing something about it.

Consider the consequences!

[Raetsel]

JWZ had a very good point -- this was discussed on BoingBoing, and here's what he had to say:

• "Doesn't taking their $20 payoff constitute an agreement that they have paid their debt? If they have in fact engaged in price fixing, they owe us a hell of a lot more than $20 each. I suspect that taking the $20 in hush-money will preclude one from participating in any future, similar legal action against them."

Damn skippy.

Too bad I don't have Microsoft-level resources for lawyers, or I might end up owning the RIAA. (Yeah, right.) On second thought, I'd better be careful -- MS might get ideas...

The question of SSNs also came up, and was addressed -- it looks like they have a legitimate reason for asking.

Just called Rust Consulting

[NotesSauceBoss]

Talked to a fellow there named Matt Potter to get a little more personal connection to this stuff.

The Notice of Proposed Settlement is available at: http://www.musiccdsettlement.com/english/notice.ht m and includes both the individual state's AGs on the case, as well as actually listing the URL for the website itself.

Mr. Potter stated that the detail of information is to ensure that fradulent claims aren't filed -- primarily by attempting to prevent the same person from filing multiple times.

I suggested they put in a privacy notice. We'll see.

I also warned him of the impending Slashdotting. He didn't know what I meant. hehe

I wonder if anyone noticed

[tonyzeb]

I wonder if any one noticed that the settlement was for 67 MILLION dollars? That means 13 MILLION people have to sign up for it before it goes below 5 bucks a person. I like Slashdot, but I dont' think there are that many readers. If less than three million people sign up, which seems reasonable to say, everyone gets Twenty bucks. Cool. Besides, anyone who is a REAL freak about their personal information would have a PO BOX, and wouldn't care. Amateurs.