Price-Fixing Settlement Checks in the Mail

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Price-Fixing Settlement Checks in the Mail

Posted by michael on Friday February 20, 2004 @03:25AM from the don't-spend-it-all-in-one-place dept.

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."

15 of 269 comments (clear)

Wonderful! by Leola · 2004-02-20 03:26 · Score: 5, Funny

This is pretty great, but weren't the checks supposed to be a bit larger, closer to 20 (US) dollars?

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. :-P *

--
* Females against Microsoft *
1. Re:Wonderful! by notque · 2004-02-20 03:39 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Seven months later than planned, your $13.86 check is finally on its way
  
  "I for one am going to put the money towards a new hard drive to store all the music I download. :-P"
  
  Forget that. I think 13.86 is the exact price, with tax for 100 cd-rws at the fry's near my house.
  
  You may think that 13.86 isn't a lot of money, but I'll make it back...
  
  --
  http://use.perl.org
2. Re:Wonderful! by notque · 2004-02-20 04:01 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  You're assuming everyone that joined the class actually bought a CD during that time. While statistically probably that the majority did, since no proof of purchase was required, we can safely assume there are at least a few people who hadn't bought anything but signed up for the free money.
  
  No need to assume. I'll end your questioning right now. :)
  
  --
  http://use.perl.org
$i3.86? by PollGuy · 2004-02-20 03:26 · Score: 5, Funny

Talk about a poke in the eye to the RIAA.
Refund! by Mick+Ohrberg · 2004-02-20 03:27 · Score: 5, Funny

Oh yay! With that $25 tax refund, I'll be stylin'!

--
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
5.6 Mil CDs... by cableshaft · 2004-02-20 03:28 · Score: 5, Funny

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
A whole $67million settlement? by jayhawk88 · 2004-02-20 03:29 · Score: 5, Funny

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.
That's a lot of CDs by Patik · 2004-02-20 03:29 · Score: 5, Funny

the defendants in the suit are also giving 5.6 million CD's to educational programs
Not to be outdone, AOL announced they will donate 56 million CDs to LFAA (landfills across America).
Best way to spend $13.86 by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-20 03:31 · Score: 5, Funny

Buy CD-R's
Re:...giving 5.6 million CD's to educational progr by illuminata · 2004-02-20 03:32 · Score: 4, Funny

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.
Great! by donnyspi · 2004-02-20 03:33 · Score: 5, Funny

Now the Music Industry is only suing me for:
$100,000.00 - $13.86 ----------- $99986.14
Yipee!
In a related story by AtariAmarok · 2004-02-20 03:38 · Score: 4, Funny

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.
Re:geeks at work! by borkus · 2004-02-20 03:43 · Score: 4, Funny

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.
A public service announcement by AndroidonPPC · 2004-02-20 03:57 · Score: 5, Funny

"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!
Re:So... by ortholattice · 2004-02-20 04:09 · Score: 4, Funny

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.
You're doing the math wrong. Here are the equations you should use; it's actually quite simple:
If you are a customer and (potentially) screw a record company by infringing a copyright, you owe $150,000 times the number of incidents.
If you are a record company and (actually) screw a customer by illegally overcharging, you owe the customer $13 times the number of incidents, then divided by the total by the number of incidents.
You left out the denominator.