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Price-Fixing Settlement Checks in the Mail
toastyman writes "Remember the Music Industry $67m settlement from way back in 2002? Seven months later than planned, your $13.86 check is finally on its way. In addition to the cash settlement, the defendants in the suit are also giving 5.6 million CD's to educational programs."
This is pretty great, but weren't the checks supposed to be a bit larger, closer to 20 (US) dollars?
:-P *
Not that I'm complaining, since it's great we finally get to stick it to those thieving bastards. My brothers and sisters all should be getting checks too, as well as my father. I for one am going to put the money towards a new hard drive to store all the music I download.
* Females against Microsoft *
Give our HUGE check to the woman fighting the RIAA, that would be good :)
**It runs through my veins like radioactive rubber pants! Do not deny my veins!**
Talk about a poke in the eye to the RIAA.
Oh yay! With that $25 tax refund, I'll be stylin'!
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
the defendants in the suit are also giving 5.6 million CD's to educational programs.
I bet these will be the first CDs to sport the New & Improved FBI Anti-Piracy Seal
Jokes aside, the story doesn't quote the exact number of people getting cheques ("More than three millions") so I'll err to averages that 3.5 millions people will get $13.86. That's $48,510,000. Who gets the other $18,490,000? The lawyers.
Another nit to pick is that they'll be giving out 5.6 million CDs. big deal, they can write that off in the accounting office. What they'll donate are discs that are sitting in warehouses because of poor sales. After all, a write off is better than dumping them in a landfill.
The recording industry isn't taking a bit hit on this by any stretch, the only ones to profit are the lawyers.
Trolling is a art,
In addition to the cash settlement, the defendants in the suit are also giving 5.6 million CD's to educational programs."
Why not sell those 5.6 million cds and give the profit to educational programs instead?
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
5.6 million CD's to music-education programs? Did the government specify what counted as educational? They could have just used this as an opportunity to send more "Don't be an evil pirate, YAAAR!" propaganda to the schools.
Creator of the popular web game Proximity
Well, at least it's nice to know that as punishment for their sins, record industry executives will have to settle for regular leather instead of the Corinthian leather on their next Lexus purchase.
Because nobody buys CDs anymore. Who would they sell them to?
Swoogan
sigs are for losers...and ppl who can think of one.
Because we're not the only ones who know their product is worthless.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Because that's not what the settlement was.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
... sue teenagers and grand parents for using Kazaa and/or exchanging music MP3s on P2P.
Then they are condemned for price fixing. Ain't life grand? The inmates are running the asylum, the foxes are guarding the hen house, and so on and so forth.
(Yes, I know that the RIAA is probably not involved in this settlement, but the RIAA bosses... er... members are the one who are condemned in this case)
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
You may be able to afford the new Britney Spears albumn.
Buy CD-R's
The plural of CD needs no apostrophe.
My inside sources say that those CDs are just a bunch of Soul Asylum and Living Colour records.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
I'd love to see what those albums are, and what their educational value truly is. Unless they're delivering symphony recordings and classical masterpieces for a music class, I can't see how that's an advantage for consumer me.
At least when MS donated OS licenses and things, one could argue that Windows machines can actually facilitate learning in all sorts of areas (let the MS flaming begin). This sounds like a cop out to me. Blah.
Chicks dig my good /. karma.
These CDs? Yeah, they're each worth $5,000 USD.
I hate the way people can get away with giving away "content" at inflated prices. If they gave away $5.6M in MEDIA costs of CDs to educational entities, I'd feel like they were punished. This is like MS giving away a bunch of software.
I've written this many times before, but it's not a punishment/loss of revenue if there was never any money in the first place. If the CD's cost $.10 each for them to make (made that number up, but it seems reasonable), then it really cost them $560K. A large number, but not nearly as large s 5.6M. If they had to REFUND $5.6M back to educational groups that had purchased CDs, that would be the way to really punish them.
This is just like MS offering to give a bunch of money's worth of software to schools. It doesn't cost 'em anything to give stuff to a place that would have never bought it in the first place, since initial R&D is the cost, and that's constant. Distribution is a trivial cost at the end.
I think I'll take their money and go buy a couple used discs.
Or maybe 13 DRM infected iTunes tracks (yeah, right).
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
I purchased well over 50 CDs in my lifetime. I get back $13? From my quick calculations I feel that I should be getting back about $300 instead.
I figure that CDs should be no more than $6.00/ea (before tax) so I should get back at least 50% of the money I spent.
Instead these idiots get off by shelling out $67 million plus free CDs to educational institutions so that they can have kids listen to their music? I hope that these CDs aren't ones they own... I want them to be TRULY taxed when they have to give away that money.
Wow, a whole 13.86. Feels like Christmas all over again.
Maybe I'll spend it on a CD! I might even have enough money left over to tip the cashier a few nickels.
Creator of the popular web game Proximity
We fought the law, and... we won!
We 0wN RIAA!!
Who's next!?!
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
$100,000.00
- $13.86
-----------
$99986.14
Yipee!
Oh, wait, but if they actuallly had something resembling a worthwhile product, they probably never would have felt the need to engage in price-fixing. Silly me.
Maybe I'm wrong. But has any major label released anything halfway decent in the last ten years?
I want a check from the RIAA for the pain and suffering caused every time I've been within earshot of a Top 40 radio broadcast.
Demand Justice!
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.
Personally, I plan to take my $13.86 check and give the money to the EFF.
[Insert pithy quote here]
and with this money i am going to go buy myself that new britteny album!!!!
Just my luck. The RIAA finally pulls out their checkbook, but I've long since moved. I sure hope that mail forwarding is still in effect.
I have to wonder if they were hoping this would happen with a lot of the settlement checks.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Personally, a check that small is a slap in the face. They did nothing to account for the number of CDs purchased during the time in question. I checked. I added well over 200 CDs to my collection during that time. Yet I get the same amount back as someone who bought just a few.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
But will it do anything about the fixed prices (ie, make them lower)??
Why not sell those 5.6 million cds and give the profit to educational programs instead?
For the same reason that Microsoft gives $xM worth of free software whenever possible to settle their lawsuits:
It's not a "real" penalty, it just looks like one to the rubes who don't realize that each physical software package/music CD costs practically nothing to produce, but is counted at its full retail value when given away.
Giving away profits as penalty for corporate wrongdoing? In George W. Bush's America? Ha!
~Philly
So I guess this would explain the state of school systems and education in general.
"OK kids, for next week you need to write a 2 page report on the latest 'Britney' CD."
Pointless.
You know, $67M would go a long way towards a nice trust or law fund to help people fight these law suits. Not that they would not continue to sue to get "their" money back, but at least to put up a good fight.
A bunch of small donations to EFF maybe?
In a related story, SCO has been forced to send checks for $699 each to every single Linux user.
Oops. it is not April 1. Sorry, "DarlDay" has not yet happened.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I've just checked out if I could receive any money but just have independent labels from that period of time (1995-2000), no RIAA albums. :-)
So I think I won't receive any money, but wait, I didn't gave them anything in the first place
So I have 13.86 coming in the mail. I wonder what I could do with that. I could buy a cd, but that's just like giving it back. I could see a movie, but that just gives the money back to the parent company of the RIAA agencies. I could buy a book I suppose, but even that lets the money trickle back into the regime.
I guess I will just donate it to the EFF, and hope that everyone does. It would be great if they made a few million straight from the record company - would really make the settlement sting more.
Congratulations, you've found a herd of geeks roving the world wide wasteland, hope you enjoy your stay. Seriously, welcome.
Pretty widgets? What pretty widgets?
Meanwhile, the world has moved on to a new music distribution model, pioneered by Apple Computer...
When you add in shipping, $13.86 US isn't even enough to buy the new #1 CD by Norah Jones
I know any money is helpful, but consider that the overwhelming majority of musicians are not signed and have no hope of securing a record deal. And that iTunes (if they can get signed on), only compensates them about 11% or so.
Here's a better idea. Look at all those musicians who let you download music legally and dash them an email, saying I want to give the money to you as a way of saying thanks for being so generous and talented.
To love the music, you must share the music. Sharethemusicday .
Robert Nagle, Idiotprogrammer, Houston
the only ones who make money in these ridiculous suits are the lawyers.
Track how much the law firms involved keep in legal fees, and then you'll know in whose interest these cases are really brought.
Give our HUGE check to the woman fighting the RIAA, that would be good :)
Why not donate your check to the EFF? Not that individuals can't have noble causes, but your money might be better spent at an NPO or similar organization that fights for your rights as a consumer...
akad0nric0
This sentence no verb.
And lawyers! Three cheers for lawyers everyone - specifically, state attorney's in New York and Florida as well as the Federal Trade Commission.
Geeks and Attorneys! Together, we're unstoppable.
*rofl*, you can't even divide properly.
It's 13.86 CENTS per CD you have.
I for one welcome our cheap, low check-giving overlords. I might as well add a soviet russia or insensitive clod. comment, but I'm not going to put people through that much pain.... In soviet russia, check pays you! -or- Im not gettin reimbursed, you insensitive clod! (Couldnt contain myself)
So you can give your money back to the RIAA through the CD-R tax?
Anyone know what kind of cd's these will be? I don't care for 5.6 million Ludicrus cd's with "Sticking up" or "Freaky Thangs" going to my daughter's school, or yours for that matter...
Donate your check to the EFF and help fight for those freedoms you keep complaining about being taken away. Just forward your check to:
Electronic Frontier Foundation
454 Shotwell
San Francisco, CA 94110
You can also make a donation at their website:
https://secure.eff.org/
Really? What do they own?
So here's a simple guide to some basic grammar, you illiterate morons.
: )
Everything seemed to be going so nice
'till the end of all beings punched right through the ice
Your math is off chief, $13.86/100 = $.1386 or to round up, 14 cents... so you paid 16.86 for 100 of those $17 cds.
...not to sound like michael moore, but this corporate crime thing really bothers me. this settlement adds up to a drop in the bucket for the recording companies. if corporations are allowed to be treated like individuals, so that no individual within the company is ever held responsible, then we should be able to punish corporations like individuals. legally control their business practises... freeze wages, firing, and take a percentage of their profits.
Your sig:
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
No, really, don't. It's really irritating when something idiotic but hilarious is marked Insightful. Nothing frustrates me more than getting modded Insightful when I'm obviously trying to make a joke and nothing I said was true. It makes me despair about just how many utter idiots run around on Slashdot more than the legions of "Soviet Russia" and "GNAA" posts do.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but instead of paying $17 you paid $16.84, not $15.61
Of course, now my address has changed, and it was so long ago that the check most likely will not be forwarded to my current address. @#$(*%&(
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Even more funny that the last post, this CORRECTION is wrong. LMAO.
Oh No, your post was moderated "offtopic" - Looks like you did something wrong!
Don't worry about it.... here, truth is modded 'flamebait' and jokes are modded 'insightful' all the time.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
How misleading.
You say the prices have been fixed, but the local Sam Goody still has eveything at $14 and up!
*sigh*
Bush-Cheney '04, Inc.
P.O. Box 10648
Arlington, VA 22210
You can also make a donation at his website:
http://www.georgewbush.com
There should be no apostrophe in CDs you insensitive clod!
"Yaaarrr.... well, I guess it started innocently enough. I thought I had power over me piracy, yarr I did, downloading a song heeeere, a dirge there. I still bought cd's, but I did so less and less. Eventually, yaaaar, it escalated to movies and the last games for me X-box. But it didn't stop there.
"Pretty soon I had me eyepatch and started swashbuckling. I spent all me bullion on spiced rum and me ship, a fine seafaring vessel she be. Yaarr, I thought I could stop, but now it's gone to far. Now I am stuck in an endless loop of pillage, sack and plunder, yaaarrr."
Remember kids, only pirates wear eyepatches. Don't be a pirate, YAAAR!
Hi, I'm new to SlashDot...
Hiya! Whacha doing in a dump like this? You could get hurt, or at least seriously offended. Maybe you should go play with the other girls before a horny geek flashes his IRC at you!
If you want to stay, you gotta learn a few of the rules.
A. we don't say 'with love'.
B. we don't advertise our blogs. Blogs are uncool since they mess with the Holy Purity of Google (blessed be its name).
C. the only girls here are geeks who wish they had more pussy. Choose a macho alias if you want us to take your comments seriously.
D. Never call a geek 'geek'. Only a geek can call a geek a geek, and you're obviously not a geek (see point A).
Okay, I know it's coming to me, I meant 16.86....... :)
U's too.
Whoops, you already did something wrong.
I just wanted to say it's great that how the people won out this time against the corporational greed of the RIAA
Corporational? Look, greed is greed, period. There's no need to make it as if a company has a more evil kind of greed or that a company is more suspect to greed. Greed lies within people, not companies.
no doubt there some geeks working in the background, and although we'll never know their names let's take a minute and think about how much worse we'd be if it weren't for them and what _WE_ can do today to improve the lives of our fellow humans.
Aw, come on! This piece rah-rah bullshit has karma whoring written all over it (and a bad whoring attempt at that). You could take this post and easily slap it on many other stories around here with a simple replacement of RIAA with whatever group is being discussed.
How much worse would it be if the RIAA won? Not much, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot. It's not like this music is as necessary for survival as, say, food or water, so eventually people would quit buying it if the prices did become too much. But, people didn't stop buying when they very well could have...
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
The plaintiffs get a measly thirteen bucks and some change while the lawyers walk away with millions. Now that's justice!
As with most class action suits, the lead plaintiffs attorneys got 1/3 of the settlement amount, and split the remaining 2/3 amoung the rest of us. So they have a huge incentive to keep the system the same. The defendants much prefer a lumping as well, rather than defending tens of thousands of suits (not everyone who collected a check would have suit, but some of the people would have) requireing several thousand dollars each, or settling out of court. The only people who would benefit from class action reform are the little guys, and we only have say if we all group together. There are many other situations similar to this. Sugar quotas are also easy to see the beneifits flowing to a small few, while the costs are spread over the many. I think it costs the average consumer a few dollars a year, a healthy amount is lost, and the few sugar farmers in the US get a small part of the benefits consumers lost, but since the benefits accrue to say 1000 farmers, it's a huge amount to each of them.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
So I guess this would explain the state of school systems and education in general.
"OK kids, for next week you need to write a 2 page report on the latest 'Britney' CD."
You do know that the RIAA also sells classical music, audiobooks, educational children's songs, discs that teach you how to learn to speak a foreign language, and all sorts of other material than the latest pop music, right?
Maybe if your education and purchasing habits were broader and deeper, you'd know these things and appreciate that there actually is a wealth of material that the RIAA could donate to schools.
(Of course, I'll bet you that it's still a slap on the wrist because the value of the discs for purposes of the settlement is probably the value they sell them for instead of make them for, but I digress.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I suspect one of them may be the musical stylings of a certain U.S Congressman.
Get your copy today!
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
So, in that seven months time it just so happens that I have moved, as probably numerous individuals which leads to a higher probability of people not cashing their checks which means that the RIAA is out only $0.37 for the stamp....
Is it really possible that they delayed this as long as possible knowing that, statistically speaking, a larger portion of the checks would remain uncashed and their penalty be lessened? What a load of crap, I just hope the new tennants are nice enough to forward on the checks...
List by section: Lawyers/Law Firms $5,948,854
Pull your head out.
Maybe the fact that they lost $67 million due to extorting their customers, has to do with the recent law suits. Hell, I am sure they are eager to make that money back and then some, let's face it the crappy music they are offering isnt selling. I ll buy a Britney Spear's Calander before I purchase any of her songs.
There were NO geeks at work here. Just a bunch of lawyers, who got what they came for. 13 dollars is what you got if you bought 5 CDs or 5000. That's winning?
Please, do the minimum amount of research before you post. This is not your blog.
There seems to be people modding things up funny and then dropping them down with negative modifiers to fuck peoples' karma over, thus preventing them from getting noticed once they have to post at -1. In a perfect world, Taco would fix the funny modifier, but he's too damn hard headed to listen to others.
So, how many people are gonna spend that on a CD? ;-)
-jls
Techno-pagan
It's like getting that rebate check in the mail... They say they'll send one... THey PROMISE! And then, a year (or 7 months) later, they really do send it! Yay!
[sig]www.masterslate.org[/sig]
Who's trying to pass the reforms? And who's blocking them?
Does anyone else find grandparent and parent's procession of .sigs amusing?
Your brain is not a computer.
I can only imagine the look on peoples faces as they open the daily mail and see the envelope with the RIAA logo in the top - and haven't read slashdot to find out it might be a cheque!
the prices are still as high and higher than before the court found them guilty of price fixing.
now I can go out and buy a CD that won't play on my peecee. the excitement is killing me!
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I didn't even sign up for the lawsuit. I figure since they over charged me for CDs. I will just download the songs I want and we can call it even.
Maybe you need to dig a little deeper. Did you read the specific bill that is being blocked by democrats? Or did you just read an article that states the primary purpose of the bill and get on your political high horse?
Reform is just a buzz word, they are passing a LAW.
I'll go pick myself up a used movie from the video store with it.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
All that will change is the venue of the location. This will in turn make sueing more difficult on the plantiff. How does this fix anything? Oh wait, it will make it harder for people to sue big companies, isn't that what Republicans are all about?
I wish they would post the numbers of the specific bills so I could read the whole thing. However, that kind of due dilligence is a bit much to show you that looking at a law (reform or not) is more than reading a fucking headline in a paper.
I bought about 200 CDs during the time when they were convicted for price fixing and over charging by up to $5 per CD. So, having been robbed of $1,000 in late 1990's dollars, I am offered $13.86 in 2004 dollars. Woo fucking hoo.
No, I did not sign up for the lawsuit as I correctly assumed it would be a waste of my time and they would probably just sell my personal info for a profit.
Now that they have been convicted, perhaps it would be a simple matter to sue and win in small claims court? Any lawyers out there?
Where's my refund for having to buy the same albums on vinyl and CD?
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Can anyone post a suggestion to how we might be able to change our address? I'm sure my forwarding has long expired.
Every itinerant person deserves his or her due!
So how much interest can RIAA make of 67 millions in 7 month? Would they also write it off as a loss right after court decision?
It's easy to find lots of examples of attempts to pass legal reforms -- like class-action reform, loser pays, joint and several liability reform, punitive damage limits, "pain and suffering" damages limits, etc, etc -- that are consistently opposed and obstructed by Democrats because the Democrats have to keep the money flowing to their lawyer friends.
Just look it up -- if you care about reforming the system.
It says they have to donate CDs to schools. I am curious what CDs they are donating to music education programs. Anyone know? Are they donating Eminem an 50 Cent CDs to middle schoolers or what?
They'll just sue a few 10 year olds for downloading Gilligan's Island theme and get their money back.
Punishments like this not only look bigger than the minor cost behind then, but they also increase market share (Microsoft piling more copies of Windows into the schools only helps entrench the OS), and it makes for a healthy tax write-off for the companies, too, further reducing any pain they feel from the punishment.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I have over 500 cds and easily 1000 records..
how does the cost of ONE cd make up for what i was screwed out of over the years?
Oh, i wasn't one that signed the petition either... i *never* agreed to that ludicrous of a settlement. ( notice cd prices haven't dropped since then.. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
No, its because Taco is a geeky asshole. Get your facts straight!
What else do you expect from somebody using "Commander Taco" instead of his real name?
Wishing I was a millionaire since 1969.
If they're trying to make me regret registering for the suit, they're doing a damn fine job about it. For less than 10% of what the pricefixing has cost me, I've agreed to drop my case.
What they did is wrong and a settlement is not acceptable. Especially a settlement this miniscule.
To help appease my sin/foolishness, I will send the money to the EFF and will hunt through a few extra trashcans trying to win free iTunes from Pepsi (found eight yesterday). Indie artists open, of course.
Don't forget, you'll have to pay taxes on that $13.86, first. So it's going to be more like $9.70.
funny, I was given a Soul Asylum CD for free a few years ago from Tower Records when they were giving away free CDs. Other fine choices included "Blind Date with Joanie and Chachie" and "Lord Tariq". Needless to say, those are no better than frisbees to me.
Forecast for tomorrow: A few sprinklings of genius with a chance of DOOM!
United States copyright law, 17 USC 1004, places a 3 percent tax on CD-R and CD-RW media labeled as "for music" or "all use". Any owner of a copyright in a song or a recording may file claims to its share of this 3 percent. I'm aware that some other countries place much higher levies on digital audio recording media.
5.6 million Janet Jackson CD's for sex education???
Joined by execs from the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Software and Information Industry Association, and the Entertainment Software Association, FBI officials said during a Thursday press conference that the seal not only will deter corporations engaging in price-fixing, but that it would aid in the prosecution of price-fixing rings by ensuring a particular work's status having a free market price could not be disputed.
The seal would enable the music and movie industries to deliver on their stated belief that education is as important as enforcement in combating collusion much as it is in fighting piracy.
see anti-piracy article
Politicus
Elitist.
Classical music is also the only way to lawfully teach music without having an army of lawyers spying on the students' every move to make sure everything that the students do falls within the letter of the fair use law (17 USC 107). Blame Sonny Bono.
Will they be distributing this free music over P2P networks? ;)
...giving 5.6 million CD's to educational programs. Wouldn't it be a lot more cost-effective to just tell the educational programs "Go ahead and download these, and we promise we won't sue you!"
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Like the RIAA sells "educational" CDs?
I can see it now. "Compare 'Puff Daddy's latest marketing with [stick the name of some other (c)rap artiste who isn't one of the ones mailed out]"
Result: more sales.
What a bunch of %^$*) !
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
And helping the patient get what is necessary. For example, there was a man who was paralized in OKC about a year ago. With the pending tort reform we have here he would have been capped at $600,000. His medical bills over his life are expected to be in the $10,000,000 range.
What do propose then? Typical Republican, fuck everyone (until something happens to you). I agree lawyers get too much, however they take the risk (not charging clients unless they win). Tort reform isn't necessary because all it does is allow businesses to mitigate their liability when they fuck up due to their own negligence.
I don't care about reforming the system, I think the whole damn thing should be scrapped. However, if you think these "reforms" aren't because Republican contributers want to save money over valid lawsuits your a fool.
There are always two sides to every issue, maybe you should take a more informed look. Like the previous link has already shown Bush has far more contributions than Kerry & Edwards combined from lawyers.
BTW Just look what up? I hope you live in a state where you or a loved one is incapacitated due to the negligence of a business and you're told "Here's your $5, no leave us alone." Now that's justice.
"I bought about 200 CDs during the time when they were convicted for price fixing and over charging by up to $5 per CD. So, having been robbed of $1,000 in late 1990's dollars, I am offered $13.86 in 2004 dollars. Woo fucking hoo."
There's a lot of misunderstanding of what happened here. A lot of people think this has to do with the margin that the record companies charged channel-wide. Reading the original article does provide some of the details, but it doesn't cover everything. I posted the below as a response to another message but I think it bears repeating. The article covers the basics: also named were Tower Records, TWE and MusicLand. Why just those three?
Set the way-back machine to the early days of the 21st century...
Putting this in black-and-white terms for /. readers, in this case the "bad guys" were the record companies, as well as TWE, Tower Records, and MusicLand, who originally complained to the record companies regarding unfair competition from the big box retailers. The "good guys" are Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and the other large retailers who used CD sales as a little-or-no margin incentive to bring customers into the stores. I am generally not a fan of Wal-Mart and its business practices, but in this case, they've won one for the free market economy.
The price fixing affected what you paid if (a) you bought those 200 CDs Tower Records, MusicLand, etc. who kept their prices high in a (sometimes successful) effort to stay in business. If, like many other people, you shopped around for the lowest price, then it's less of an issue.
By the way, if a manufacturer sells an item into the distribution channel for a fixed price (for CDs, it tends to be around $8), if the retailer marks it up by 10%, 20% or even 100%, it does not affect how much the original manufacturer made when they sold it to the distributor. I'm not privy to the price that record companies sell in to Wal-Mart vs. specialty retailers, but the price difference between stores is often more about the store's profit margin, not the manufacturer. For the record companies, this was less about how much they made per CD, and more about protecting their retailers, so that they could ultimately sell more CDs.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
That $13.86 settlement check is bigger than my George Bush sponsored tax cut!
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Clinton / Gore 1996 Contributors by Industry
Lawyers were Clinton's second-largest contributor too!
Guess who was the largest? It was "unknown" - maybe that includes the Mob & Chinese?
I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
Not only didn't this cot the recording industry nearly as much as a real anti-trust suit would have cost, but now that they've managed to delay it for this long, I'd bet many of those checks will be returned to sender, as the people who should have gotten them have moved already. I did, and it's now long past when the post office will foreward mail.
So they skate again, by abusing our legal system. Yeah, I know, it wasn't a huge check, but as Geddy Lee said in "Take off to the Great White North,", "Hey, ten bucks is ten bucks, eh?"
Bah.
Lemon curry?
The Howard Dean Campaign, which is dead, supports the Neo Trolling Group!
But the point that you are missing is that most of these lawyers are donating on behalf of their clients in order to give more than the $2000/person limit. So, it is not lobbying for lawyers/law firms'agendas, it is the agendas of their clients.
Support the future of battles against the RIAA -- take the RIAA money and send it to the EFF. :)
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
Are probably the usual Video Professor shovelware.
While you raise good points about what happens in the absence of competition, and that the crime happened before the first copy of the CD was purchased, I think the parent poster had a good point too. The parent poster should not be chided for observing that people could have rejected these CDs in the first place.
People need to be introduced to musicians that don't sign with RIAA-affiliated labels. The public needs to hear about independant distributors that treat the public like partners, not criminals. I host a public affairs show called "Digital Citizen" on community radio (WEFT 90.1 FM) every other Wednesday 8-10p and I talk about issues including copyright matters. If you're near Champaign, Illinois I invite you to tune in. I have interviewed musicians and distributors that work with the public to bring us good music. I also make sure that the talks and music I play on the show can all be recorded and shared verbatim (at the least). I have a huge library of music to draw from at WEFT, but almost all of it cannot be shared in the way I want my show to be shared, so I don't air any of that music on my show.
Just as these RIAA-affiliated corporations make a choice to screw the public, we can choose not to be taken. But it takes a great deal of education to get the ball rolling. It's not impossible, it just requires time and work.
Digital Citizen
That will save me like 2 cents in taxes! Totally righteous!!!
Joseph?
They've only won one for the continuing death of middle-class businesses and made another step towards a world where you're either a huge corporation or a rightless consumer. People are generally too stupid to understand that it's in the long term bad for them if they buy at Wal-Mart. Markets have to be regulated in some way.
Give me some of that sweet sweet justice!
How am I going to spend my windfall?
Should I buy a new CD, some sort of geek toy?
What?
I have to declare this money on my taxes?
That'll put me into a new tax bracket!
I'll end up getting $40 less next year in my refund!
Damn you music industry!
Damn you class action suit!
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
So this pirate walks into a bar, and he's got a steering wheel shoved down his pants.
The bartender says, "Aye, matey. D'ye know that ye've got a steering wheel down yer pants?"
And the pirate replies, "Yarrrr. And it be a-drivin' me nuts!"
The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
"They've only won one for the continuing death of middle-class businesses and made another step towards a world where you're either a huge corporation or a rightless consumer. People are generally too stupid to understand that it's in the long term bad for them if they buy at Wal-Mart. Markets have to be regulated in some way."
Very astute. But many Slashdotters are getting their $13, and perhaps we didn't need specialty retailers like Tower Records anyway, when we can just go to Wal-Mart and get our (edited for our protection) CDs and our underwear at the same time. Plus, as a bonus, it's perceived by many commenters as a victory against record companies (when in reality the record company makes about the same no matter what store they sell to). It's a bit like a few years back when we all got the $300 "tax refund" and people were practically wetting themselves. Those who saw the big picture and the possible long-term effects of the country spending money it doesn't have were often derided as spoil-sports.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
Someone at EFF needs to fix up their web page. The DONATE link at the bottom of the main page is broken. But I figured out that if you go directly to https://secure.eff.org/, you can donate to them.
Hopefully the regular donate page is down because they're being flooded with donations due to all of the 5-rated slashdot posts pointing to EFF and suggesting that people donate. Do it. You'll feel good.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Hmm. Let's do the math, ignoring inflation.
I have 500 CDs, most bought at $16-18 price. Let's say $16 to be conservative.
Total investment is thus about: $8,000.
Reimbursement from price fixers: $13.86.
100 * ( 13.86 / 8000) == 0.17%
Boy do I feel "reimbursed."
Actually, if you read the fine print on most class action rulings, the settlements require a specific amount of money to be paid out to the claimants. Anything that's not claimed out of that total has to be spent, one way or the other. (Often, it's ordered to go to a local charity.)
So depending on how much you'd like to see a listed charity or other such organization receive some money, you may just want to participate in a class action that you're entitled to a settlement from. (Whether you participate or not, the company still pays out the same total amount of money. You're not making things "better" for them by opting out.)
I bet the "Blind Date with Joanie and Chachie" would be worth something nowadays.
I wonder if the RIAA will have some sort of robotic monster throwing the CDs like frisbies and beheading school children as a method of distributing these CDs?
This signature used to contain a cute kitty virus with ansii art. Please set the slashdot editors on fire. Thank you