Slashdot Mirror
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."
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!"
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.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I think fire is the solution.
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.
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
..the kids didn't get a copy of Marthas next album..."Not Quite Spooky Sounds from Cellblock 11."
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.
Hmmm.
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.
Blar.
Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween is the shit! I blast that on my 15s while sippin' on 40s.
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.
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.
Help a college student
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!
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.
The CB App. What's your 20?
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
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...
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
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.
Robert Frost's parole officer doesn't read that.
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?
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
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...
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
"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.
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.
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.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."