Australian Court Doubles CD Importers' Fines

anti-fsck writes "Australia's Full Federal Court today upheld a lower court's decision that music labels Warner Music and Universal Music had engaged in anti-competitive practices in the .au CD market by threatening retailers who imported cheaper CDs. The court also doubled the labels' fine - and the fines for senior label executives - to more than $A2 million. w00, cheap CDs at last? Now if we can only get US-zoned DVDs legalised as well ..." Another reader notes that the U.S. government is busy trying to get Australia to change its laws to increase the profits of U.S. record companies.

Comments

Re:What business is it of theirs

[Zocalo]

Americans only like free markets and capitalism when it works in their favor. When it doesn't, they enjoy getting their government meddling with tolls and taxes and what not.

And this is different from every other capitalist country how, exactly? OK, maybe the US does it more that others, but ultimately regardless of the financial/political/whatever system everyone is looking out for number one. The US just has the biggest stick at the moment and seems quite prepared to give it a swing, in a few hundred years it'll probably be the turn of some other nation(s).