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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!"

33 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. I dunno... by Huxley_Dunsany · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm still waiting for my check from Bill Gates... I must've forwarded that email to a billion people! :-) Huxley

  2. $13.00! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can go and buy another CD!

    1. Re:$13.00! by Master+Bait · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm going to donate my $13 to the EFF.

      --
      "Only in their dreams can men truly be free 'twas always thus, and always thus will be."
      --Tom Schulman
    2. Re:$13.00! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      In other news, RIAA announced a new minimum price of $14 per CD.

    3. Re:$13.00! by jsse · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm going to donate my $13 to the EFF.

      Let me make the job easiler for everyone. :)

      EFF
      FSF

    4. Re:$13.00! by jdunlevy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Might also consider sending your $13 (and/or other money you want to give to a good cause) to the Future of Music coalition, which describes itself as "a not-for-profit think tank based in Washington, DC that strives for the creation of a musicians' middle class. The FMC's primary goal is to educate musicians and the public at large about some of the critical issues that are shaping the policy debate in the music/technology space." They're decidedly anit-RIAA and pro-musician and favor alternatives to RIAA-controlled distribution.

    5. Re:$13.00! by NetCurl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or....

      How abotu when the government finds out that 5 major labels have been colluding to fix the prices on CDs, they make them all give $13 to whoever signs up, and then shake hands and say "All in a day's work," and nothing changes? That is paltry in response for how long it went on before we found out. Is that promoting capitalism or consumerism? Competition? Or the fleecing of America (and the world?!?) by people who have enough money to influence the government? When do the people wake up and realize it's not fair, and they keep voting along party lines for people that are only harming them?

      --

      It's only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything...

    6. Re:$13.00! by mbogosian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      amazon.com has a running promotion of no s&p if you order more than (I think) 30$. That's 3 cds...

      Amazon also makes it very easy to buy used CDs at significantly less. To all you folks out there, you should be buying used whenever possible (which means almost always). If it's a new release you want, wait two days and somebody will be selling it on Amazon used (just click on the "XX used & new from $X.XX" link under "more buying options" on the right side of any product page).

      This is the real way to send a message to the RIAA: don't buy their product; -or- if you have to buy their product, buy it so they don't make any revenue on the sale. If you want the artist to get money, buy the CD used, then go to the artist's webpage (most have them) and send what you saved when buying a used CD directly to the artist as a gift; it will be more than what they would have made on a new CD sale.

  3. Wow! by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Funny

    $13.00? I'd probably get more for recycling my stash of AOL CDs.

  4. free money? by rot26 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Doh! Now I wish I had bought all my music instead of debo-ing it from napster. Just think what I could do with $13.

    --



    To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
  5. When.... by Nagatzhul · · Score: 5, Insightful

    do they lower the prices?

    --
    "All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." - Ashleigh Brilliant
  6. RIAA Numbers by Paddyish · · Score: 5, Funny

    What they forgot to mention was that the RIAA will claim that the $13 should actually be $0.13 due to the extreme value of a dollar.

  7. The heck with that, I want lower prices. by drdanny_orig · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now that it's been decided they're guilty, can we expect a roll-back of prices? I wouldn't pay $19.99 list for God's Own Words® let alone Madonna's.

    --
    .nosig
  8. Wow, a whole $13 by Schlemphfer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'm looking forward to receiving my $13. I bought a hundred or so CDs between 1988 and last year, so I figure this check covers about 1% of the total I've been overcharged. In any case, the recording industry will never get another nickel from me. The RIAA disgusts me so much that I've stopped buying new CD's entirely. Now I just buy used, listen to it a while, and sell it. The money I save goes to seeing the musicians I like perform locally, and sometimes to buying higher margin stuff at their shows, like T-shirts and so forth.

    We've got the recording industry in a vulnerable spot. It's time to withhold cash from them and go in for the kill.

    --
    I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
  9. what ever you do, don't buy a cD! by pioneer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah yeah... 13$ is about the price of a CD... so whatever you don't feed it right back into the machine that is the RIAA... instead go donate it to a good cause like the couple below (no affiliation)

    boycott-riaa.com

    digital-consumer.org

    do something useful and fight this idiotic RIAA crap!

    1. Re:what ever you do, don't buy a cD! by linuxbaby · · Score: 5, Insightful
      That's like saying 'Never buy software' because you don't like Microsoft.

      At CD Baby we work directly with 38,000 musicians (NO record labels) that are selling their music direct to the world.

      Just like we should all support the independent programming projects when possible, you should support independent music so that these big record labels will have to reinvent themselves or die.

      Hurt the record labels, not the musicians themselves. Do a musician a favor. Bypass the labels. Buy direct . (My little store alone has paid over $3 million directly to musicians in the last couple years.)

      (See our flavor galleries for some real creative browsing.)

    2. Re:what ever you do, don't buy a cD! by yamcha666 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or better yet ... Buy a CD from an indie band covered under an Indie label - Actually, for how much indie bands charge for their CD's, you could probably get 2 of 'em for $13. If you need a head start on where to look, I suggest All Or Nothing Records. You can buy one of their band's CD's for $8 off the online store.

      Indie bands need the support, plus, they appreciate their fans' support. Win-Win situation.

  10. I'll be honest by Faust7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    That $13.00 will go towards the monthly fee for my DSL, so that I may continue to use Kazaa.

  11. Only $13? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I own about 500 CDs. $13.00 works out to about two and a half cents per CD. Is that all they were gouging me for?

  12. $13? by NoInfo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Umm, only $13? Good thing 'we' 3.5 million people settled this case.

    The real winners here, of course, are the lawyers. A large portion of the remaining $23.3 million goes to them.

    Just a hunch, but I imagine it comes out to a tad more than $13 for each for them.

    IANAL, but right now I wish I was.

  13. Re:RTFA by $carab · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's right.

    So everyone who's getting the money has agreed that the music companies didn't fix prices.

    In effect, if you're getting that 13 dollar check, don't bitch about the cost of CDs, you lost that right when you agreed to the settlement.

  14. Re:is it really still a rip off by fugu13 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.
  15. not so by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 4, Informative
    From CD Baby's report:
    Price of music on iTunes
    • Songs must be 99 cents each.
    • Full albums are recommended to be $9.99 or lower.
    • Album price must be less than or equal to the sum of their tracks. So if you have a 5-song album, it can't be more than $4.95 to buy the full-length album.
    • Apple strongly recommends going even lower than $9.99. They'd like to see that price drop to make the full-album purchase even more desirable.
    Almost all albums are $9.99, even if you're getting 15 tracks.
    --

    --
    the strongest word is still the word "free"
  16. Re:Stop seeing it as a $13 issue by alienw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can't have 'waves upon waves' of suits for the same issue. The case has been settled. It's over. You can't sue them again, unless you excluded yourself from the class action.

    Also, it IS a $13.00 issue. Let's see, the recording industry got at least hundreds of dollars from almost every person here ($100 = about 7 or 8 CDs). A few will get $13.00 back. Who wins, you or the RIAA?

    Also, a $45M settlement is pennies for the RIAA. They will not feel anything. They would feel the pain if this was 2 billion or even 500 million, but not for $45M.

  17. Re:RTFA by $carab · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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)

  18. They want what for $13? by pherris · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From "Questions and Answers" :
    Include your full name, business name if you are filing on behalf of a business, your complete address, your telephone number with area code, your date of birth, including the year, and the last four digits of your Social Security Number.
    There doesn't seem that be any mention about what happens to this data after the settlement. Is it legal for someone connected to this action to sell it?

    That's ok, keep your money and I'll settle my claim via kazaa.

    --
    "And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
  19. They've already weaseled a way around it by splanky · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:They've already weaseled a way around it by lactose99 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just want to point out that the new Metallica CD contains an 80 minute DVD containing live performances of the entire album. Typically "free" DVDs are about 20 minutes, so you get quite a deal with this.

      Beauty (and value, in this case) is in the eye of the beholder. I'd akin an 80 minute Metallica live DVD with getting a root canal by a epileptic dentist.

      --
      Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
  20. Donate To Chewplastic by KU_Fletch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:Donate To Chewplastic by jerkychew · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You may not need to.

      Check out his site - he's already received over $10,000 in donations since the settlement.

  21. But i dont agree with the ruling. by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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 ----
  22. FSF? by siskbc · · Score: 4, Funny

    For only 70 cents a day, you can make sure that a needy child refers to Linux as GNU/Linux.

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  23. Also Donate to This Guy the RIAA Screwed by KU_Fletch · · Score: 5, Informative

    As was mentioned on Chewplastic's site, we might want to consider also doanting to Daniel Peng, another student who was hit by the RIAA at the same time. He seems to be having a harder time getting donations since he hasn't had as much media attention as Jesse Jordan did. Plus Jesse seems like he's not that far from getting his money back and I know the RIAA is sending out a WHOLE LOTTA CHECKS.

    On a brief sidenote, this makes me very proud in the redeming qualities of the Internet and the overwhelming spirit of helping the Davids of the world fight thier Goliaths.

    --
    It's not stupid. It's advanced.