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CD Price-Fixing Suit Ruling
Jay Langhurst writes "As the AP reported Friday, if you filed a claim before March 3, 2003 online or otherwise you'll be getting a gift in the mail from those monopolistic music companies in the form of a check for about $13!"
Strange that the settlement payout is about the price of a new CD. Coincidence?
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
They're really not just garage bands anymore. Go browse your favorite style of music over at CD Baby, and check out their editor's picks. Really amazing stuff there, and all of your money goes directly to the MUSICIAN not to the very record labels who this lawsuit was against!
" Of course, they will attribute this decline in sales to piracy and push for the uber-dmca to send music pirates to a death camp in cuba."
And they can do so all they want. They can cry foul while I listen to independent artists. Sure, they'll be able to get some lobbying done, but _without my money._ If enoough of us start doing this, the big 5 will crumble rather quickly, and look even sillier as Indies that respect artists, or better yet, artists themselves rise. As Ani DiFranco used to state in the back of her CDs: "Unauthorized duplication, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing."
Some unauthorized copying is actually good for artists, and most of us are probably honest given the right music/price point.
Not quite. A large part of the single song price is convenience-- it increases apple's costs significantly to offer single songs. If you want to buy an album through the iTMS, you'll pay (for almost all albums) approx. $10.
For to end yet again.
There is no precedent. This is a settlement. In the eyes of the court, the fact question whether the recordingf industry has fixed prizes has not been determined yet.
"Light is faster than sound." - "Is that why people tend to look bright until you hear them speak?"
that was DOS'd for the last few days before march 3 2003. makes you wonder if the riaa did that to recude the number of payouts or total dollar amount. i own thousands of CD's and couldn't get onto that damn site, even at 3 AM!
Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants conspired to illegally raise the prices of prerecorded Music Products by implementing Minimum Advertised Price policies, in violation of State and Federal laws.
I thought that was illegal... Now someone explain to me, why is it that I still hear so many commercials saying "prices so low we're not even allowed to say them here!" And then someone else tell me, where can I buy popular dvds wholesale?
$75.7 million/5.6 million CDs = $13.52 per CD. But isn't that the 'fixed' price for CDs? Wasn't this suit about how they should be priced much lower?
This strikes me much like the proposed settlement in the Microsoft case that had them distributing several hundred milliion dollars worth of software and operating systems to schools. In that case, it was a little bit more blatant, since it was obviously an attempt to use the settlement to undercut Apple's education market without fear of repercussions. In both, though, the settlement is for an inflated dollar value that doesn't really reflect the cost of the product they're distributing.
-T
what happens to all the checks that are returned by the post office?
No...this is the standard thing you see in the back of magazines (usually Parade) all the time.
When you signed up as a claimant, you accepted the terms of the settlement. You said "Yes, the state attorneys general came up with a solution that I find to be adequate".
As pursuant to that, you can't personally do anything else against the industry in terms of price fixing....When you registered, the issue became closed to you.
Me? I haven't bought a CD in years. This money is going into an iPod, so I can play all those lovely 192 kbps mp3s....yummm....
(or maybe tuition....heh)
What valid reason is there to not allow producers of a product to charge whatever price they wish for the product? They're making it; they have every right to sell it for whatever they want.
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Just a heads-up, I'm biased as I work at a record store...
The Eagles just released a single and instead of selling it through everybody, they only are selling it through one retailer! So even though the "price fixing" lawsuit finished, by selling through only one retailer, the music consumer ends up paying a higher price because the retailer doesn't have to compete for business. Using this Eagles single and the new Metallica as an example:
The new Metallica: loads of competition. Best Buy price for first week: 9.99. Wholesale price to record stores (and Best Buy): 11 bucks and change. Net Margin? Negative!
The Eagles DVD single. no competition. Best Buy price: 6.99. Wholesale price to record stores (and Best Buy): 4-5 bucks. Net Margin? 28-40%
Also, compare the price of that DVD single with others --- a lot of DVD singles have run only a couple of bucks (heck, the last McCartney DVD single was actually FREE to encourage people to buy the full length) --- so in this case the manufacturer actually raised their price also because there would be no competition on it.
The frustrating thing about this is that the Eagles are directly responsible - they made this big deal about leaving all the major record companies - but when they did, they made even worse decisions than the major record companies did - independent record stores like mine are locked out from selling the record, while the one major company makes big bucks on it. Considering all the BS Don Henley gives about fighting corporations and such, he's just a washed up hypocrite.
There's a lot of good stuff on CD baby. But there's a lot of crap too. Just like in a real music store. If you didn't find anything you liked on there, you didn't look hard enough. (And for God's sake, don't limit yourself to the editor's picks. The whole point behind indie stores is that you don't have to limit yourself to the choices someone else made for you.)
In the ultimate move of spite, take the $13 the RIAA is settling with and give it back to Jesse Jordan, the student who's life savings was taken by the RIAA in a "symbolic move." It's his money, we're just giving it back to him.
It's not stupid. It's advanced.
Now that it has been decided that there was price-fixing for Jan 1, 1995 to Dec 22, 2000; what about Dec 23, 2000 - Now?
Will prices of CDs go down? Will there be another class-action?
Will the prices go up? Will the RIAA say "We just had a lawsuit and we would cut CD prices, but there is still file-sharing and cannot afford it."
Lots of questions, no answers.
When modding "Informative", please make sure it both has a source and IS actually informative.
And i never signed the form, does that mean i can still sue?
I have over 500 LEGAL cds in my collection. I am owed more then a tiny 13 dollars.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If they notify me via email that looks like spam I will probably just delete it. Same thing if it is paper mail that looks like junk mail.
Somebody, when they start the refunds please post info on what the refund looks like.
The other $7 must have gone back to the lawyers. I can't even buy a new CD for $13. This sucks.
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog!" - a dog
To all you folks out there, you should be buying used whenever possible
I stopped buying used CDs several years ago when, after I was burglarized, I found a slew of my former CDs in the used CD bin at the local Wherehouse. Although I had marked my CDs (with a red dot on the jewel case to avoid mix-ups at work/parties), neither the cops nor the Wherehouse found that sufficient evidence to return my music. I lost around 300 CDs (US $4500), more than half my collection.
Now I couldn't sell my used CDs, even if I wanted to. I've marked them all "Property of Brett Johnson. Stolen if presented for resale."
P.S. Vengeance was soon mine, 'tho. One day I was "working from home" when I caught one of the neighborhood kids crawling out my living room window. I nabbed the brat with 16 of my CD's in his shirt. He turned out to be our son's "friend" that would unlock a window when he was visiting, then come back later to rob us blind.
What if the RIAA continues to artificially inflate prices? If I buy another CD wouldn't that entitle me to sue them again for price gauging? I mean if someone punches me, I settle with them for a monetary amount and say it wasn't assault, that doesn't now give that person the right to continue punching me.