UK Music Industry Stomps on Imported CD Seller

MungoBBQ writes "The Independent is one among the many news sources reporting that BPI, the British equivalent of RIAA, has made a large online retailer of CDs, DVDs and games, comply with their demands to raise prices by 2 pounds per CD sold on their website. The retailer, CD-WOW, based in Hong-Kong, agreed to raise their prices offered to their UK customers to avoid legal battles. CD-WOW caters to many other European countries, where people have been enjoying their cheaper CD prices. However, it can now be assumed that other national recording industry organizations will make CD-WOW and other online retailers jack up their prices to 'better compare' with the local prices in each country."

Comments

How about offering 2 pounds off to UK customers?

[MImeKillEr]

Or did they cover that already?

Sure, charge 'em 2 pounds more, then offer a 2 pound instant savings for customers in the UK.

F the BPI and the RIAA.

I don't care

[rhadamanthus]

I'm really unconcerned about this. I don't buy CDs anymore. I don't download them from kazaa either. I'm tired of giving a shit about people being screwed by RIAA (et. al.), artists being screwed even worse, etc.

I'm not getting ripped off anymore. I tell everyone I know to do the same, for all the usual reasons, as I've been doing since I started to get informed on these greedy leeches. But if people wanna keep getting screwed, and the artists don't demand better conditions, I don't feel bad or angry anymore. Only justified in my newfound (albeit limited) apathy.

---rhad, who is a little cynical today

Re:It makes sense, though.

[mhifoe]

CD-WOW are a small company and probably can't afford to defencd against these lawsuits.

The BPI are threatening to go after Play and Amazon next. It'll be interesting to see whether they win so easily against bigger companies who can afford lawyers.

I'll be particularly gutted if Play are forced to raise their prices. I buy all my DVDs from there.

What CDWOW should do.

[jotaeleemeese]

COntact their local authority complaining about price gauging from the part of the EU.

Let China raise a complaint in the WTO.

Small companies, and individuals should try top leverage the weight of their goverments in this kind of disputes, specially when clearly the BPI is in the wrong (UK people should not the dissatisfaction with them and perhaps with the corresponding branch of the goverment. This stinks of monopolistic behaviour).

Re:"Hong Kong-based"?!?

[philbowman]

It never went to court. This was an out-of-court settlement, presumably with the UK Arm of the company. Those of us who buy from CD-WOW are hoping the German (.net) and HK (.hk) sites don't get hit with the same restictions.

CD-Wow probably pissed off the BPI because they have a section "Unsigned - as yet" which sells CDs from as-yet-unknown bands, which doesn't make any money for the big labels. [Gratuitous plug - look at 'Bridgefield' in this section - they're friends of mine, and think CD-Wow are great for giving them a chance to get better known].

Theft

[pubjames]

Personally, I think this extra two pounds we have to pay is theft. How do they justify it? This is cartel price fixing.

How many millions are the music industry going to rob off UK customers as a result of this action?

The music industry are theiving b******s, which is why they are so obsessed with telling everyone that it's the public that are the thieves.

Speaking as a Brit

[Fr33z0r]

We really do get bent over by everybody when it comes to our cash.

Looking at my own economic situation (I'll convert prices to dollars :), I smoke and drink alcohol, both of which are heavily taxed so I probably wind up paying about $100 a week on the tax on those, then I've got road tax, council tax, x tay, y tax and z tax, and to top it all off I pay V.A.T on everything I buy - that's 17.5 percent added on *after* taxes, shit we even pay VAT on delivery when we buy our [overpriced] stuff.

In a regular week with no cash spent on toys, I probably pay about $200 on sales taxes, my wages are even better, with upward of $700 getting taken off my wages every week.

that's close to $1000 a week I pay the government, I'm really curious as to what the fuck the government does with all that money.

Now I'm going to be taxed up the ass for, uhh... well, going by the article, *nothing at all* - it's just some greedy assholes who want money for doing zero.

I used to buy CDs, not any more, I refuse to piss away any more money on money-grabbing fucking middlemen without the skills or talent to produce something worthwhile on their own. I'll support the artists I like by going to their concerts, buying stuff off their sites, or even just *giving them cash* ffs. The music industry is a total farce and I think I've been a total dumbass for continuing to support it financially all this time.

No more CDs for me, not until the industry is fixed.

And seriously, would it kill the government to *not* take so much money from us? :D

Re:It's their lot in life, they're made to suffer

[nicky_d]

It's because they're selling to british and the british are meant to suffer.

We surely are. As an example, I recently sought to nab the 3rd and 4th MST3K box sets. So to start with, not available in the UK. I shop around, find a good deal on Amazon for the pair, and send off. Now, importing into the UK is an absolutely random gamble - your package may or may not be checked and subjected to extra duty. Mine was - an extra 13 on top, split between Customs and the Royal Mail. But it's not all bad - the total price was still less than the other vendors, and way less than I would have been expected to pay if there was a UK release. Our prices are generally ridiculous for DVDs and CDs - there has been some improvement of late, but price cuts are generally led by major chains who can afford the risk, leaving smaller independent stores in an unfortunate position. If I think an independent store is worth supporting, I'll happily do so - but I won''t fork cash out to high-street chains when I can get the same product much cheaper online (though the online store is probably a subsidiary of the bricks-and-mortar one) and I won't buy British when I can buy American (or even better, Chinese) for far less. It's not like I'm helping kill off master British craftsmen - just a few corpulent CEOs. And while I might contribute to a salesperson begin surplus to requirements, I'll also be contributing to the demand for postal workers...

Re:Completely inaccurate story summary...

[radish]

But if you want cheap stuff from abroad, you're free to either go there or order it direct from stores in that country (but be ready to pay import taxes)


But that's the whole point. CD-WOW is in another country - it's in Hong Kong. I am ordering direct from them, and I am liable for any import duties (which are actually waived under 30GBP value). So this is what I have a problem with - CDWOW bought a legitimate product from their local supplier. They then decided to sell it to me, who happens to be in a different country. This is somehow deemed "wrong". That's crap, and it flies right in the face of any notion of free trade.