RIAA Dumps Unsold Inventory to Settle Anti-Trust Case

theodp writes "A music windfall promised to WA public schools and libraries from last year's $143M anti-trust settlement with the recording industry wasn't all it was cracked up to be. While WA got 115,241 music CDs out of the deal, folks aren't quite sure what to do with the odd collection, which includes 387 CDs containing explicit lyrics by Big Pun, 310 copies of Will Smith's Willenium and 48 copies of Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween from Martha Stewart."

Comments

This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[garcia]

They could use the Big Pun CDs as part of English class and how not to speak. Classics such as "Nigga Shit", "You Was Wrong", and "Off Wit His Head" are excellent examples of poor grammar. So it's obvious that the RIAA was thinking about our school children there.

The Spooky Scary soundtrack can be used to frighten children away from prison. "Listen to Martha screaming as she is tackled by larger more 'friendly' inmates!" Again, point for the RIAA.

114 copies of Meredith Brooks' "Blurring the Edges," which includes the Grammy-nominated song, "Bitch."

It was nominated for a Grammy so it must be good! The RIAA was doing them a favor obviously.

Farley's regional district, which covers 35 school districts, received 1,355 copies of Whitney Houston singing "The Star-Spangled Banner." The hit single, which Houston sang before the 1991 Super Bowl at the height of the Gulf War, was 5 percent of the district's cache.

Yes, let's promote a current drug abuser with a husband that likes to stay in prison. That's the sort of lesson we want to be teaching our children. "Look kids, you too can be a successful musician *and* be a crackhead!"

While these examples are a small part of the 115,000 total CDs I still have to say, "way to go RIAA, you are corrupting our children with crappy music in stores, radio, and now even in the classroom! Thanks!"

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[ianpm]

Is it just me, or does this remind anyone of the sort of thing that would happen in The Simpsons? I am amazed that the hard working people of America tolerate the kind of crap that RIAA pull. Great story though.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[snjoseph]

Oh snap, where's the Wu? Remember what Ol' Dirty said:

I don't know how you all see it, but when it comes to the children, Wu-Tang is for the children. We teach the children. Puffy is good, but Wu-Tang is the best.

Also, kids today need to learn about such topics as

• Shaolin
• Killer Beez (on a swarm!)
• The Brooklyn Zoo
• Dollar Dollar Bills

Shame on ya, RIAA! Shame on ya!

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny how the RIAA complains about file sharing since it is "giving works away" when they obviously have LOTS of crapola they can't even give away themselves.

I wonder if they'll sue the schools for not paying for the cds afterwards.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[dasmegabyte]

I don't know how many times I axed you guys not to nitpick on the grammar tip, but I'm fiend to break my linguistic foot off in your ass if you don't cut it. The syntax of spoken English language is not set in stone, nor is it even agreed upon by the majority of speakers. The rules of usage are set by the users and are in constant flux. Furthermore, the stylistic approach to language taken by groups attempting to assert their identity through language should not be outcried as "how not to speak," as this is insulting and devisive. Remember: the British look down on our use of "elevator" and misspelling of "color" and "civilisation."

Big Pun is not an example of how NOT to speak. It is more an example of how TO speak, if you want to be respected in the future career path of successful emceeing. This is how dialectic speech should be taught -- use "You was wrong" in the rap game, and "you were wrong" in the world of business. In the world of politics, use "you were wrong, and that's why everybody on your side of the argument is a terrorist loving traitor." It's all about the best tool for the job.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[devilspgd]

Go down to the RIAA's offices with a newspaper.

Say whatever you need to say to sit down with someone employeed by the RIAA. Lie a little if needed.

Roll up the newspaper, smack them over the head and say "No! Bad RIAA!"

Leave. Never buy another RIAA product again.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[wwest4]

+5 Insightful.

I've always tried to teach my kids that word is, indeed, bond. And that the correct term for an interracial person of black and white descent is "dalmatian." And finally, the ODB/BBJ creation theorem: God made Dirt, and Dirt bust y'ass.

Quite.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

> culturally we're breaking into distinct groups with very little cross-over and intermingling.

I used to think that way too until I talked to a Japanese kid on a skateboard wearing a Public Enemy shirt who talked about how much he loved Nine Inch Nails and John Coltrane.

Trust me. We're intermingling...

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know how many times I axed you guys not to nitpick on the grammar tip, but I'm fiend to break my linguistic foot off in your ass if you don't cut it. The syntax of spoken English language is not set in stone, nor is it even agreed upon by the majority of speakers. The rules of usage are set by the users and are in constant flux. Furthermore, the stylistic approach to language taken by groups attempting to assert their identity through language should not be outcried as "how not to speak," as this is insulting and devisive. Remember: the British look down on our use of "elevator" and misspelling of "color" and "civilisation."

Knowing how to speak properly and being too fscking lazy to learn how to speak properly are two entirely different topics.

If you're too lazy to learn to speak in an accepted manner, then odds are that you're going to be a troublesome employee when it comes to dress code and professional conduct as well.

It's the old adage... if you're not faithful in little things, why should I trust you with bigger things?

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[RosebudLTD]

It's all about the benjamens.

The RIAA is complaining about a loss of income, when one of us downloads a song for free, instead of paying for it.

The crap they handed out to the schools does NOT fall into that catagory. Who the hell would pay for any of that?

As someone else pointed out, getting rid of dead inventory like that was profitable (they no longer have to store it, and they get a tax write off).

So, once more, it's all about the benjamens.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[dasmegabyte]

It is. I can even pronounce it for you if you like. Using improper grammar or spelling to indicate accents or modes of speech is a common practice among writers, one that can often effectively convey meaning as well as pronunciation.

"If I write loike this, 'oo dyaspose I am emulightin'? Wot sort of spaitch dya 'ere when you ride it? Kinyou hair a nyoo accent I am cratin'?"

My linguistics and grammar prof hated this sort of thing, because it really is quite racist to think that other cultures use variant spellings of words due to the way they pronounce them. That hasn't stopped just about every writer in the twentieth century from doing so...heck, even Shakespearre used to play on mispronunciation and poor grammar.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[Simonetta]

I still have to say, ?way to go RIAA, you are corrupting our children with crappy music in stores, radio, and now even in the classroom! Thanks!?

I still don't understand why the RIAA has so much political power when so much of the product that they sell is so clearly anti-social. Much rap and death-metal is clearly the results of disturbed individuals and a massively disfunctional culture.

I'm amazed that people who chose the appearance in public of gangster rappers and death-rockers complain that stangers are not inclined to assume that they are civilized human beings. They assume that this is prejudice and racism.

No, it's not. It's the result of a focused and unrelenting advertising campaign to sell rap music by portraying young males in hooded sweatshirts and other gangster fashions as the most violent and unpredictably disfunctional people on the planet.

And it has worked. Be a young male African-American with a backward baseball cap and go anywhere on earth. People will treat you like shit and just assume that you're a monster. It will take decades to reverse this new stereotype of hip-hop culture.

And what did young people of color get from all this negative stereotype casting? Nothing. A few individuals got big enough record contract advances to piss away on weird jewelery and pathetic SUVs. But nearly all the profits went to middle-aged white corporate executives, who would never let hip-hop individuals into their personal lives or social class environment.

Step'n Fetch'it is rolling in his grave.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[Colazar]

From experience, one can not have two different dialects of the same language and maintain seperation.

Actually this is untrue. People are very adept at code-switching, which is using the proper dialect at the proper time. The only time we tend to have problems is when we don't know the code to switch into (or don't quite understand what makes one appropriate over another).

Although, depending on what you mean by "pushed to speak form (the) heart," you might have a very good point. A very famous sociolinguist (whose name escapes me at the moment) would always ask his interview subjects to describe an incident where they almost died. Reliving the stress of that moment would often cause them to revert to their base dialect, which is what he was interested in analyzing. The amount of stress you have to put on someone to reliably get them to go into that dialect is pretty incredible, however.

Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself!

[monkeydo]

According to the article the settlement state that, "Titles had to be on a Billboard chart for at least 26 weeks and had to peak in the top half of the chart." I can't think of many CD's fitting that description that aren't crapola.

RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[mfh]

From the Article: Raunchy music wasn't what anyone in education or the Attorney General's Office had in mind when they announced that a windfall of music was coming to public schools and libraries from last year's $143 million anti-trust settlement with the recording industry.

Yes, but it's exactly what the RIAA had in mind, so couldn't the Attourney General charge the RIAA with the intentional corruption of youth? Gosh if the world was perfect, the RIAA would be charged criminally for trying to push explicit lyrics on children.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[XMyth]

If the world was perfect the RIAA wouldn't exist at all.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Ateryx]

Gosh if the world was perfect...

If you didn't know, Creed broke up... anything else is just details.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Troed]

RIAA would be charged criminally for trying to push explicit lyrics on children

Are you by any chance a US citizen?

In the rest of the world we let the parents raise their children .. really .. what do you think happens to kids who listen to "explict lyrics"? I'm seriously curious.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[mfh]

> 2. Are you arguing for censorship?
No. I think that there should be age limits for certain types of media. If a company willingly gives explicit content to children, they are at fault, just as they would be at fault for providing smokes to minors or booze to minors.

My point is that the RIAA pushes the fervent agenda that children should be responsible, and not download or upload copyright protected material, but in the same course, they offer free explicit music to the school system because they are too cheap to pay a fine. My thoughts are that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and the RIAA should be charged for corruption of innocents, or attempted corruption of innocents. (IANAL)

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the gist of the parent was that the current administration is approaching social issues with a very fundamentalist-christian leaning; our attorney general has covered up the statue of Justice because you can see a boob, for example, or how the FCC just raised the fine for broadcast vulgarity by an order of magnitude to send a specific message to Howard Stern and his soundalikes in local markets. It's not so much about the poster being a nutjob who wants the gov't to raise children by legislation so much as it is a weary citizen attempting to make a giant corporate entity as prone to litigation as the little guy seems to be these days, to turn a corrupt government against it's corrupt corporate allies for a change. At least that's how I read it... but then I'm an AC so you can ignore me.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Alzheimers]

Actually, sounds more like Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. I would imagine it would come with penalties similar to buying Cigarettes or Beer for a 16 year old, which can be considered "Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor".

I can't find Washington State's law, but using Colorado as an example, contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a class 4 felony with 2 to 6 years in jail and a fine of $2,000 to $500,000. (Colo. Rev. Stat. 12-47-901, 12-47-903, 18-1-106, 18-6-701)

How many CDs was that again?

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Izago909]

The courts are run by idiots. Taking a pay pay off in the form of products being pushed by a paticular industry is just dumb. You know Microsoft is just going to donate 5 year old computers, and you know the RIAA is going to hand off the CDs they couldn't sell at their yard sale. Maybe the courts shoud *gasp* take a settlement in the form of cash money. With original thinking like this, I'll shall never be elected to public office.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[cloudmaster]

In the US children are raised by TV, though the internet is slowly replacing that parent. "Parenting" is suing whoever you can blame for corrupting your children. /Glad that I was raised in an area with poor TV reception ;)

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[gosand]

Are you by any chance a US citizen? In the rest of the world we let the parents raise their children .. really .. what do you think happens to kids who listen to "explict lyrics"? I'm seriously curious.

I can't speak for the parent poster, but I was wondering the same thing. I am pretty sure that the comment was tongue-in-cheek, considering all the hoo-ha that went on over Janet Jacksons b--b. (sorry, don't want to fucking offend anyone). So the government can force radio hosts off of radio stations for using "obscene" language and references while the "beloved" Oprah is not held to the same standards. Yet the RIAA, the champions of good taste, are able to donate very questionable material to youth as part of a class-action settlement against them. It is all a ridiculous farce.

Some of us in the USA are quite aware of the idiocy that is going on in our society. I am personally embarassed that as a "free" society, we are so very far from it.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Apreche]

+10. That is the #1 problem in this country. Parents are not bringing up their children. They let public school and television do all the work. Instead of doing it themselves they just complain when pop culture and schools do a poor job.

Home schooling is no better either. What you get there are socially inept children who are coddled and shielded from the real world.

With college retention rates in the terrible state they are, it is obvious. Kids in the US are not being raised in a fashion which allows them to get by in the real world.

I think the #1 factor in this is that many families have both parents working, so nobody is home to raise the children. I'm no anti-woman type. It doesn't matter if the mom or the dad stays home, but it has to be one of the two. The other problem is of course, divorce. Divorce is happening because people who were raised poorly are getting married.

So, what prevents one parent from staying home? Money, duh. They need more money. The income of one person cannot support the family of 4 unless you have a really good job. The problem though, is not inflation or unemployment or anything, although those factors contribute. The problem is consumerism. People buy things for the sake of buying things. They buy things they don't need. *cough* SUVs *cough*. In general people are trying to live at a higher standard of living than they can afford.

Why don't they stop doing that and be more frugal/intelligent and raise their children properly? Corporations. Advertising. Consumerism. Big corporations are the root of all the trouble. This CD episode is simply a direct example of the larger problem. You can see it plain as day. Corporations trying to turn children into consumers. Consumers who will live above their means. Consumers who will allow their children to be raised the same way.

Google is the shining example of real Adam Smith capitalism at work. These megacorps need to change or leave in order to save our society.

Do you agree, or do you think I'm taking it too far? I actually think I may have... oh well. I'll submit anyway, no point in putting all that typing to waste.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[dasmegabyte]

Actually, if the world was perfect, the RIAA would exist, and its tireless efforts as a non-profit to guarantee that artists and record producers each get a fair cut of market value CD sales would be a credit to the music loving public.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[dthree]

Microsoft donate hardware, are you nuts? All they would have to do is hand each school district a few cds and a site license for windows and office and call it $2,000,000 in "donations". You're right, cash is it.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Dun Malg]

Get this - Americans changed the English word TITBIT to TIDBID because the original was too obscene!!!

Nonsense. Both were considered proper spelling variations early on, and eventually "tidbit" became the accepted one.

c1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1885) III. 25 A tyd bit, i.e. a speciall morsell reserved to eat at last.

1701 Collier M. Aurel. (1726) 13 To be always loading the table, and eating of tid-bits.

As you can see from the above OED excerpts, the "tidbit" variation predates not only the american revolution, but much of the continents colonization as well.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[oconnorcjo]

It is a parents job to raise thier kids but I would be really pissed off if the school system I was sending my kids to were playing puff daddy lyrics during lunch time. I also scorn the use of words like bitch/fuck/whore/cunt/racial slurs and various vulgar language used in some modern rap music. I see no conflict between a school system sueing a corporation for "trying to" corrupt children and parents being responsible for how thier children are rasised- that is why a school system would be sued by parents (if a school actually played the music the RIAA sent). It is within parents rights to allow thier kids to say "I am going to pop a cap in your head" but I expect our learning institutions to hold to a higher standard for the many parents that DON'T allow such nonsense.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Ricdude]

Don't forget their tireless efforts to normalize record player output levels and equalization curves. Thanks to these efforts, we don't have to change the settings on our 27 band stereo equalizers for every record we listen to.

The CD audio mastering profession, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly willing to sacrifice dynamic range for loudness, clipping be damned...

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[ryanwright]

Home schooling is no better either. What you get there are socially inept children who are coddled and shielded from the real world.

-1, Doesn't Know Jack About Home Schooling.

Before you run your mouth again, I'd suggest you find a local homeschooling group. Go to one of their meetings and watch the children interact with one another. For kicks, bring along some children of your own - borrow someone else's kids if you don't have any of your own. The point is to introduce strangers into this group of "socially inept children."

Then watch with amazement as the homeschooled children immediately and with no reservations make friends with these strange kids. Socially inept children don't walk up to other kids and say, "Hi, I'm Katie. What's your name? Do you want to go play on the slide with me?"

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[maxpublic]

Home schooling is no better either. What you get there are socially inept children who are coddled and shielded from the real world.

And I'm sure you have cites to credible, empirical evidence for this statement, published in an accredited, peer-reviewed journal? No?

Imagine my surprise.

Max

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[M. Silver]

So, what prevents one parent from staying home? Money, duh. They need more money. The income of one person cannot support the family of 4 unless you have a really good job.

This is often a myth... when you sit down and do the math, you find out that the second income is eaten up (and then some) by daycare, convenience foods and restaurants, and all the less obvious expenses that pile up when you're both working. Some of that's *so* "less obvious that even sitting down and doing the math doesn't tell you the real story.

We cut our household income in half when I quit to have a baby. And our standard of living hasn't changed (to our great surprise). Difference is, I have to cook and shop and all that instead of managing an AS/400 shop. Yeah, in a lot of ways *that's* a major sacrifice - at least I can still code at home on my *own* projects, so I don't feel at all like I'm completely falling behind on my career. Not everybody can do that. On the other hand, not every second income is 50% of the income, either, so a lot of wives (and the occasional husband) can stay home and actually *improve* the household bottom line.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Jens_UK]

Here is a link to a story on research that indicates homeschool children are NOT socially inept.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[Tackhead]

> +10. That is the #1 problem in this country. Parents are not bringing up their children. They let public school and television do all the work. Instead of doing it themselves they just complain when pop culture and schools do a poor job.

And while we're at it, on the subject of hip-hop...

Listening to hip-hop today (versus the hip-hop of the late 80s), I see a basic set of self-reinforcing memes. In no particular order: Education is acting "white" and is therefore a form of race treason. Race treason is an unpardonable sin; the purity of the race must be preserved. In the absence of education, crime is the only viable career choice. Respect is achieved through violence and intimidation. The purpose of life is to acquire money through force, fraud, or intimidation, and to spend the money purchasing whores. When whores are fucked, it's OK to shoot them. Kill all white people, because they're devils.

When I was a kid, we had a word for people who wanted to keep blacks and whites segregated, and to prevent blacks from succeeding in public school in order to keep them out of college, and to condemn them to lives of poverty, and on a dead-end track to murder or prison.

That word was "Klansman".

Today, that word is "Hip-Hop Recording Artist".

For double irony points, guess the race of the CEOs of the entertainment conglomerates that make the most money out of selling this memeset to blacks.

Big Pun in the public schools? If it weren't for the fact that Klan's too stupid to come up with anything this subtle, I'd call shenanigans.

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[op00to]

I heard about a guy who has a monkey. It was a very nice monkey. It wore a little hat. From this, I will now deduce that every man has a monkey, and that all monkeys are nice and wear little hats.

Seriously, anecdotes mean absolutely nothing. The GP said kids who don't go to school have sucky social skills. You said "NUH UH!"

Now, can we actually hear proof either way?

Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault?

[M. Silver]

We had satellite (and gave it up because we weren't watching it; Netflix is a better use of the money), still have a cell phone (we'd probably lose the landline if the DSL wasn't on it), a company-provided pager (unfortunately), but no new car. My husband drives a 17-year-old beater to work (it's ugly, but it's a 1-ton truck and gets 25 mpg, so it's eminently practical), I drive a nine-year-old minivan that's still in excellent shape. We're putting money aside so when time comes to buy another (non-new, probably another program car), we'll pay cash again.

My hobby business made enough to buy a 29" TV (I think it was... ) a couple Christmases ago. And we do have high-speed DSL, with static IPs, for the Phoenyx, so that's an extra $40ish every month we don't have to spend but do.

And we regularly support nonprofits... tithing at our church, public broadcasting (TV/radio), food banks, etc.

On the other hand, I'm not dressing my preschooler at The Gap and Old Navy, so that makes a difference. He wears mostly secondhand stuff, in fact - makes more sense when they seldom wear clothes out. Heck, *I* wear the occasional secondhand find, though since I'm not working I don't need to overdress so my wardrobe's cheaper these days even new (another one of those hidden bennies).

It's all in where you want to spend it, I guess.

I've thought long and hard about this...

[P-Frank]

I think fire is the solution.

Surprising how?

[Craig Maloney]

This is surprising how? Not only can the RIAA pay their settlements, but they can also take a tax write-off on unsold product. It's a win-win for the RIAA, and a dubious victory for the lawsuit winners.

Re:Surprising how?

[Ayaress]

Actually, at least in Michigan, the lawsuit winners don't get a dubious victory, they get jack squat. For example, many of the CDs are going to troops in Iraq, which isn't a bad thing, unless you were expecting some of the settlement.

The article only covers a small part of the CDs, but according to WNEM, the settlement CDs are also being placed in all the public non-emergency vehicles in the state (which would include the personal cars of most of the state politicians, refuse collection trucks, mosquito-sprayers, and so on), being given to state employees, and so on. Those people who were to actually benifit from the settlement get a big old goose egg.

Re:Surprising how?

[Jonny Ringo]

and a win for me, now I'm totally comforted with the fact Willenium will always be on hand and ready for me to check out.

Re:Surprising how?

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

> many of the CDs are going to troops in Iraq

"CNN and the BBC is reporting that occupation troops, fuelled by a massive wave of enthusiasm and adrenaline, have retaken all cities that had been overrun by the Sadr militias. Citizens are rejoicing in the streets, shops are open for the first time in weeks, and a butterfly was seen landing on the head of a beautiful little girl in a wheelchair. When asked for a comment, General Tommy Franks said 'Never underestimate the power of the Wu-Tang Clan. And from now on, call me by my Shaolin name 'DefSquad'." When asked for clarification of his cryptic remarks, Franks shouted "36 Chambers be lookin' for ya, al-Zarqawi! Don't be a biatch!" Franks then left in a Humvee that had been freshly pimped by West Coast Customs."

The worst part..

[Sockpuppetofdoom]

Is that this was one huge tax write off for the RIAA. They get to declare full retail price on these CD's on taxes, AND they clear out inventory

Re:The worst part..

[hackstraw]

Redundant post, so I'll redundantly post my reply to the original.

Is that this was one huge tax write off for the RIAA. They get to declare full retail price on these CD's on taxes, AND they clear out inventory


Huh? What CDs? What inventory? The RIAA is just an industry trade association like the American Plastics Council, or the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. I don't think the plastics council nor the beef council have inventories of beef, plastic, or CDs.

When are people going to realize that the RIAA does not really exist? They are merely a bunch of lawyers that can't get a real job, so they create this thing called the RIAA and guess what? They get paid either way. For a lawsuit against them, for all of these bogus lawsuits against everybody, the lawyers (aka RIAA) will get paid win, lose, or draw.

If I get contaminated beef, who would I sue? Not the beef's trade association, it would be the store or the beef plant that made the bad product.

If I get caught stealing something from the store, the store does not take me to court, they report it to the "proper authorities", and the store people only show up as a witness. I would doubt that there would ever be a trade organization involved.

If I get caught "stealing" music (yes, go on a tangent about this, I dare you), some group of lawyers (RIAA) come after me. Why can't they just report it to the "proper authorities"? I mean, on every movie I have watched at home the fucking FBI says that they will practically kill me if I do anything that violates the copyright on the video. How difficult is it just to turn over the people? That is what everyone else does.

This is a good thing

[lukewarmfusion]

The RIAA has to be seeing these CDs and thinking, "If people aren't buying Willenium, what are we doing wrong?"

They try to spin this component of the settlement as a heroic act, giving back to the community. Now they won't be able to do even that.

April Fool's?

[Raven42rac]

I had to look at the calendar to make sure it was not April 1. What on earth are schools going to do with Big Pun, and Will Smith cds? Besides use them for coasters in Chemistry class? Even when the RIAA loses, they still win. They are like a cat that always lands on it's feet. So they have to "pay" by clearing out warehouse space and writing off the "losses", ouch.

Just be glad..

[Jareeedo]

..the kids didn't get a copy of Marthas next album..."Not Quite Spooky Sounds from Cellblock 11."

Public School

[Mz6]

"The Secretary of State's Office this week set up a CD-swapping listserve for librarians and administrators, said Karen Goettling, with the state library system."

I've got to hand it to them... As much as we like to rip on public schools and all, atleast they were smart enough to set something like that up. Of course, it still doesn't really solve the headache of having to deal with the myriad of copies of each artist. Not to mention the explicit lyrics CDs the schools received that will have to be transfered out. This also offers a chance for the schools to trade CDs with the libraries and so on... creating a "P2P-like" network among the State. I'm also glad that they decided to include some of the older, classic music in there as well. However, that still doesn't make up for the overabundance of CDs that just scream "I didn't sell, just take me, particulary this statement from the article:

"Part of the settlement the recording industry made with states' attorneys general was that the giveaway CDs couldn't be junk, Larson said. Titles had to be on a Billboard chart for at least 26 weeks and had to peak in the top half of the chart."

Considering they have several Billboard charts this is very subjective. I'm guessing that they sent CDs based upon the Billboard chart subjective to their music genre. Because I know that Wilson Pickett, "In the Midnight Hour", Yanni, "In the Mirror", "Chicken Soup for Little Souls", or Martha Stewart's Halloween sounds haven't made it anywhere close to the Billboards TOP charts. Unless we were looking at a very large Top Billboard chart.

At least you *could* install Windows...

[EggMan2000]

Didn't Microsoft have a similar payout in one of its settlement cases? At least people can use software, nonoby, and I mean nobody can use 300 copies of a crap CD that didn't sell very well to begin with. What a rip-off!

They might as well have sent them 10,000 AOL CDs.

Re:At least you *could* install Windows...

[Anonymous Coward]

nonoby, and I mean nobody
Well, you corrected yourself, so I guess I can't enter some kind of spelling flame here.

Re:At least you *could* install Windows...

[Simonetta]

What Microsoft does is give a hundred PCs to the school district and two copies of Office. They wait until the teachers, kids, and administrators have loaded Office on all the PCs. Then they hit the school district with a huge lawsuit threatening to demand a hundred thousand dollars for every 'pirated' installation of the software. They 'settle' for a single payment of a million dollars or so. The original PCs are all taken as a tax write-off donation.
They've done this to Philadelphia and Portland Oregon that I know of and probably many other places as well.
A truly sleazy and degenerate company.

Wow...what a bunch of scumbags...

[FatSean]

An who in the gov't decided that shitty music that doesn't sell is an appropriate method of payment?!?!

Disgusted. I'm going to go steal some music off of the internet now.

Hell yeah!

[karniv0re]

Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween is the shit! I blast that on my 15s while sippin' on 40s.

Be really honest with yourself:

[burgburgburg]

Can any of us really have enough copies of "Willenium"?

What with deranged strangers bursting into your home and smashing all of the copies they can get their hands on (before trying to induct you into their cult and sell you aluminum siding), there is always the danger that you will be without an actual copy of "Willenium" at a vital moment. I find absolutely nothing wrong with the RIAAs actions in this settlement. I just wish I could share in the windfall. I've personally purchased over 15,000 copies of "Willenium" since it's release. I'd buy 15,000 more when necessary.

Recycling ideas...

[mirko]

See the "creativity corner" at the bottom of this page.
This might keep them busy for a while ;)

The RIAA

[JustNiz]

..is why God invented handguns.

Re:The RIAA

[BigGar']

And invented them hundreds of years before the existance of the RIAA, to "Shake Out the Bugs", before they were really needed.

GOD really is all knowing.

RIAA similar to Microsoft?

[MacGoldstein]

Is it just me, or does this sound scarily familiar to Microsoft's failed attempts to "settle" by giving free copies of Windows to schools? I hope that no more companies are allowed to "atone" for their sins by giving out freebies to further secure their footholds in the marketplace. Not that Will Smith was going to do much for that anyways, but its the principle of the matter.

Re:RIAA similar to Microsoft?

[mackman]

Good point. I bet when SCO gets slammed by the SEC they'll settle by donating "100 million dollars worth of Linux licenses" to the US government.

They could have gone with plan B...

[Ackmo]

...which was to just pay cash. But in pennies.

Plenty of great ideas

[SkyWalk423]

...folks aren't quite sure what to do with the odd collection...

What do you mean?? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for schoolkids to conduct important research on compact disc aerodynamics and durability! Take them up to the roof and see how far they'll fly. See what the old magnifying-glass-in-the-sun trick does to them. Or you could lay them all down data-side up on a grass hill, turn on the hose and make a kickass Slip N' Slide!

What to do?

[PudKaplan]

What are they going to do with these CD's? The answer is obvious! Rip 'em and put 'em on KaZaA!!

Why do the RIAA get to choose the value?

[bennomatic]

You'd think if these CDs were unsold inventory, the value of them is what consumers were willing to pay: $0.00. Or at most what they are going for on the used CD market. Or even fairer, somewhere between production costs and the used price.

The point is, just because the RIAA says these CDs are worth $17.00 doesn't mean they can be used as currency. I mean, isn't that sort of artificial valuation what got them in trouble in the first place?

I've decided that one pound of my crap is worth a couple of thousand dollars. When next month rolls around, I think I'll give a pile to my landlady and tell her to keep the change.

Re:Why do the RIAA get to choose the value?

[eric2hill]

If I had mod points, you would get them.

You're EXACTLY right here. All of the lawsuits being thrown around by the RIAA are predicated on the fact that they would have made a sale in the full amount of the CD (i.e. not on clearance at Wal-Mart) if the swapper hadn't downloaded the songs. Music does NOT equal legal tender, especially since I'm only paying for the right to listen to the song, not the right to own the CD.

When exactly ...

[burgburgburg]

isn't it the solution? To any of lifes many problems?

Oops. I hope my parole officer doesn't read this post.

Re:When exactly ...

[wrf3]

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
-- Robert Frost

Won't somone make them stop!

[yoshi_mon]

While I didn't RTFA in true /. style I have got to guess that the RIAA valued each one of these CD's at full markup price rather than what they actually cost to make.

So in addition to the fact that they get to clean out their warehouses to make room for new crap they are distorting the economics by valueing each of these CDs higher than what anyone would have paid for them.

In reality these things would have sat around until it became cheaper to sell them off for next to nothing. Instead they are getting full value, granted for a lost court case, for something that never had that much value to begin with. They win again...

Artist royalties?

[crow]

So if the RIAA is giving away CDs instead of a cash payment, shouldn't the artists receive the royalties on those CDs as if they were sold at the stated value?

Of course, if they're excess inventory, the point is probably moot as the royalties wouldn't have covered the recording and promotional expenses yet, so it's not real money yet.

Re:Artist royalties?

[curator_thew]

"Of course, if they're excess inventory"

You've probably come across a nice technicality: the recording contracts with the artists probably state that certain forms of offloading unsold inventory don't result in royalties, and so this "dumping" is a nice break for them: not only do they avoid paying hard cash, but they avoid paying royalties (which they may have been liable for it they dumped off the stock at $1/each), and avoid wastage (i.e. if they dumped the stock into an incinerator for no gain, and an overall loss [taking into account costs of production]).

Very saavy move by the RIAA, which only goes to show how commercially slick and smart they are in business terms, as opposed to the schools who were have been completely shafted because they probably assumed they were going to get some useful music out of the deal.

Boy, I hope ...

[burgburgburg]

Robert Frost's parole officer doesn't read that.

Sell the CDs.

[darkmeridian]

No, that is not exactly what RIAA had in mind. The school districts do not *have* to expose children to these CDs. The RIAA intended no such thing; they were just grudgingly complying with a court settlement. What use could the district have for those CDs? Well, they could sell them on eBay and then use the profits for books, couldn't they?

Re:Sell the CDs.

[mini me]

If the RIAA can't sell those CDs, how do you expect anyone else to? Just look at the titles. Trust me, they won't be going anywhere.

one word : FRAUD

[swschrad]

and three more, CONTEMPT OF COURT. RIAA officials should be jailed for this bullshit until they come up with educationally significant materials, like the full catalog of classic recordings. this is like being required to post a deposit at the clerk of court's office and doing so by taking their pants down.

Precedent

[IGnatius T Foobar]

This should be viewed as a precedent. The next time RIAA sues file-swappers, they should be paid in any old junk those folks happen to have around. Dead car on blocks? Value: $10,000. Couple of old 486's lying around? Value: $2,000 each. Spoiled potato salad in the back of the fridge? You get the idea...

Happened here in South Carolina

[JLSigman]

The public library system got a bunch of CDs dumped on them, but the district attorney said that they're not allowed to put out the ones by Eminem or other profane artists. So not even adults could borrow them. God forbid we be allowed to decide for ourselves... (and down here in the South, they decide that God does forbid quite a bit of free-thinking)

Not the RIAA. A group of labels != the RIAA

[jschottm]

The lawsuit in question involved suing a number of specific labels, as well as a few retailers. Scroll down for a list of defendants If you want to get riled up about this, do so by all means, but target the correct group. You don't like it when the RIAA accuses all file-swappers of being criminals, so make yourselves look better than them by not doing the same thing.

Despite the /. groupthink, not everything you don't like in the recording industry comes from the RIAA.

Mod Funny doesn't help Karma

[Anonymous Coward]

Due to changes in the moderating system, Funny doesn't help Karma. But modding a funny comment as Insightful is a way of skirting the issue and rewarding those that amuse.

*grumbles*

[DataDragon]

"Let them eat cake." You know, its one thing to lose a lawsuit, its another thing to say you'll make up for it by helping out the public interest that are normally have hard times finding appropriate funds during recessions or have to consider the logistics of their operation sometimes before inventory, or attaining their desired goals of education. This act could have been a reasonable one, there are a tremendous number of very enlightening recordings such as historical e-books, instructional materials, etc. that would have done well to improve the RIAA's claim recipients (whom, I might add, weren't the lawyers settings the case.) The "poor recording artists" that RIAA claims to protect the interest of who could have benefitted from this are countless. Instead, they've used the educational system as a junkyard, snubbed their noses at the recording artists whom the value of their contribution could have been recognized and appreciated. And because they are being used as a junkyard, the task of sorting through all these inappropriate CDs and disposing of them are left in the hands of people who have enough troubles already. Its like giving beggars video game tokens or something, and they'll probably be snapped at by the RIAA for being ingrates.

It must be good stuff, it was on the Billboard!

[Kurt Gray]

Quote the article "Part of the settlement the recording industry made with states' attorneys general was that the giveaway CDs couldn't be junk, Larson said. Titles had to be on a Billboard chart for at least 26 weeks and had to peak in the top half of the chart."

I don't know about the rest of you but I've always regarded the Billboard chart as the height of quality control. I personally was skeptical about such musical masterworks as "Rock Me Amadeus" and the timeless classic "Macarena" until I saw their prominent standings on the Billboard chart. My only hope is that the RIAA will be forced to also release the gold master special edition box sets of Vanilla Ice's "Cool As Ice" which can only be truly appreciated in 22 channel surround sound.

Re:It must be good stuff, it was on the Billboard!

[Ralph Wiggam]

In 22 channel surround you might be able to hear some way that Ice Ice Baby's beat is different from Under Pressure's. That video clip of Vanilla Ice explaining how his song is nothing like Under Pressure is one of the funniest things MTV has ever shown. For those of you who havn't seen it, Vanilla Ice says "Their version goes like this...ding-ding-ding-dinga-ding-ding...and my version goes like this...ding-ding-ding-dinga-ding-ding". I've probably seen that clip a dozen times and I have yet to tell any difference between his two renditions.

-B

Re:It must be good stuff, it was on the Billboard!

[Naffer]

Somewhere on MTV's website they have a realonevideo of the actual clip. I was only able to find an mp3 of the interview and have mirrored it here: Be kind to my webspace

Dose this mean...

[Cytlid]

... that if I get sued by the RIAA I can settle out of court and pay them with MP3s?

Huh?

[ThisIsFred]

OK, I've got some questions, and maybe you've got the answers:

* Why is a public school system involved with a settlement about monopoly pricing? That has nothing to do with consumers!

* Since when is donation at the discretion of the "guilty" party an acceptable remedy for price fixing, even if the donated items were in BillBoard's Top 10?

I really don't get it. I think the RIAA is the head of a cartel, but if the gov't was accepting this as a remedy, then they really deserved to get cow dung as a settlement. Just like with the tobacco company settlements, it was done "in the name of...", but it was mainly about the transfer of wealth to someone other than the [allegedly] represented parties. Well, this time it backfired. This is why it's better to indirectly set up the market to fix the issue instead of trying to do it directly. In other words, if you can't fix it, then get the hell out of the way. The RIAA is powerful because they've got a big, fat revenue stream from people who do buy legal copies of the music. That's the problem, and there isn't a way to fix it as long as people think a $20 CD is a good deal. And since the RIAA is so powerful in the US, they can bury a tax in the cost of CD-Rs. It'd be nice if the tax was listed separately on a CD-R package, like the phone company did with the USF tax.

Settlements suck

[bigbigbison]

Class-action lawsuit settlements are one of the biggest scams out there. Friends, family and I have been in 3 or 4 of these over the years and every time and in every settlement I've heard of the cunsomers get crap like coupons -- to buy more products from the people who screwed the consumers to begin with!

The only people that profit are *gasp* the lawyers.

It could've be much worse

[pherris]

They could've given them this (windows media player required, sorry).

An idea from my childhood...

[Black Art]

The courts did not think that the RIAA would be this sleezy. Hopefully they will learn from this and give them *NO* slack in the future. Since they never defined what was to be donated, they got all that worthless junk that goes into the cutout bins. I am surprised that they did not send a few John Ashcroft or orin Hatch albums along to increase the pain level. (Or maybe that was too much even for them.)

As for what to do with all these worthless crappy CDs...

Remember the old "Star Trek disc guns" they sold back in the 70s? They need to make a few that shoot CDs hard and fast. Then line up the RIAA lawyers and executives and have a little target practice.

Of course, they were never very accurate. But they provided plenty of ammo.

Is it really news anymore...

[phearlez]

... when a class action suit results in a settlement/judgement which is a joke for the plantiffs? The only people who ever get anything worth having out of these things are the lawyers.

When defendants can just clean out their storage locker and use unwanted crap to "pay off" their debts these verdicts aren't even going to serve as a punitive measure and preventative for scofflaw companies.

I can imagine one CEO to another - "Hah, we were going to have to charge off all those crap CDs when we discarded them anyway, all we did was change a description in the budget!"

what to do with 117,600 useless CDs...

[0WaitState]

What to do will 100,000-plus useless CDs?

Send them to AOL!

Legal Remedies

[sampson7]

This type of settlement is common place in large class action law suits. Which is fine.

But the parties are bound by the settlement they enter into. And is sounds from the article, that RIAA has breached its obligations under the settlement agreement (especially with the notched/promo CDs).

Somewhere in the settlement agreement there should be a clause specifying what happens if one party or the other does not live up to the terms of the settlement agreement.

It's time to dust off that clause, and head over to see your local friendly judge (preferably one with a child in the school system). With a little legal wrangling, the children of American regain their right to listen to really, really, crappy music.

they should do this, exactly

[mnemonic_]

Fourteen tons of tritonal explosive coupled with plastique, electronically fused. Zirconium fragments and easily-made napalm, with multiple thermite grenades attached for maximum incendiary effect.

Plague of Consumer Culture

[MooseByte]

"Do you agree, or do you think I'm taking it too far?"

I agree fully on the Consumerism rant. I know people who need both their incomes to cover their mortgage. But then again that was a choice. I have plenty of friends and relatives who say they have no choice. But if asked they're forced to concede that no, nobody is forcing them at gunpoint to live in a 5-bedroom cul-de-sac lot. Or a 3-bedroom home in coastal California.

The problem is that Americans have a VERY skewed perspective of what is a need vs. what is a luxury. Then the "needed luxuries" lock people into a lifestyle that prevents one of them from being able to stay home and focus on raising their own kids for the first several critical years.

Also those "needed luxuries" lock them into jobs and careers they may hate. What a wasted life.

Great saying: "There are two ways to be rich - Make more, or want less."

And before someone starts pissing and moaning about how "I just don't know what it's like", I recently had to live in a 1-bedroom apartment for a few years with my kids because that's all we could afford. We've since rebounded, and yes that extreme was a challenge for us. But you know what? We're still here and we're a tight family. And we had fun. Parks, trails, community swimming pools, all kinds of essentially free stuff. How about flying a kite? Books from the library? And actually doing those things WITH them?

I also know a couple who job-share, so they both get to have a hand in raising their kids. They don't have a huge house, live in an upscale community, or own a big SUV hauling a rarely-used power boat, yet mysteriously they're very happy. And they have great kids. Go figure.

This Settlement Crap Won't End...

[Nom du Keyboard]

This settlement crap won't end until it is required that the lawyers be paid in kind (CD's, vouchers, weird rebate certificates, tiny discounts on future airline travel, Windows upgrades, etc.) that the winning plaintiffs are paid with.

Great Example

[bluepinstripe]

I think the RIAA has provided a great example of how to settle a lawsuit. If I'm ever sued by the RIAA, I will offer to settle with them for a cash equivalent in my fecal matter, valued at $15.99 per ounce.