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Music Download Pricing Lawsuits Pending?
larry bagina writes "New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has subpoenaed Warner Music Group, apparently looking into allegations of price fixing with Sony/BMG, EMI, and Vivendi, and apparently more subpoenas are in the pipeline. 'As part of an industrywide investigation concerning pricing of digital music downloads, we received a subpoena from Atty. Gen. Spitzer's office as disclosed in our public filings. We are cooperating fully with the inquiry.'"
Who'd have thunk it, the music industry being crooked? So, who are the pirates now?
It does seem maybe these (alleged) crooks may be losing their grip on the industry: getting caught with their hand in the pricing cookie jar, and potential other investigations into payola (the other way they control the flow and exposure to music/artists).
Disclaimer: I know, innocent until proven guilty, but with the propensity and willingness of these (alleged) crooks to string up the customer like so many Christmas (Merry!) lights, publicly indicting/convicting consumers before trial. How's the shoe feel on the other foot? Maybe there really is a Santa Claus(e)!
I don't care what his motivations are, whether he's a demagogue or not, at least somebody is standing up for the little guy and trying to put these scumbags in their place.
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
Don't forget, Wall Street comes under his jurisdiction. That's why he's gone after so many crooked corporations.
Arguably he's done it to boost the public's impression of him, but at least he's done something real good to do it unlike latching on to divisive issues. He's punished so many crooked corps: Wall Street, insurance, payola, and now the music companies again. Here's a profile: Wikipedia Profile The consumers will lose a great public advocate when he goes on to become Governor (although one hopes he'll use his clout there to do even more reform.)
You know, the one where they got fined and then CDs still cost the exact fucking same?
Might want to ask yourself who Spitzer works for, new yorkers or the record companies. Have you noticed a pricing change in CDs since his initial win? I havent - they still cost way too much. A few million bucks is nothing to these people, i say they are getting off way too cheap and then can hide behind these weak settlements if the questions ever come up again. If i was a record company i would be overjoyed to see this guy coming. So what benefit does attention to online music pricing give to record companies; Steve Jobs doesnt want to change itunes prices - be funny if he was ordered to in court wouldnt it...
I was crazy back when being crazy really meant something. (Charles Manson)
It's difficult to not admire the tenacity and inginuity with which he pursues these people. But it's also difficult to make the case that they are punished in proportion to their transgressions. Steal hundreds of millions, but you'll have to give millions back. Where is the disincentive? Collude to steal billions, and be forced to offer rebates that customers won't take wide spread advantage of because we've got to make it convienent for the criminals. These people who do economic harm on this scale, they need to lose everything and spend everyday of the rest of their lives in a very deep, dark, lonely, empty hole. That's disincentive. But to think, we live in an age when half-measures from politicians are genuinly deserving of praise. It's sad.
... wow. While I'm ok with this partilcular lawsuit, when's the last time you woke up and check the news and didn't see few new gigantic lawsuits happening every damn day?
Is it just me, or we have waaay too much lawsuits going on here. I mean, lawsuits are supposed to be the exception, and the regulator is supposed to be the law with the help of a possibility for lawsuit.
Today, we just have a bunch of lawsuits from people raping the system, and no benefits. For how long can the system sustain this?
You know this is millions of people giving part of their wage for lawyer/lawsuit expenses. You have to work more and get less, so that all those lawsuits can happen. Directly or indirectly.
God damn it everything is so wrong.
**head explodes**
Where are the people who normaly say that there should be no governement control and that the market will decide what to do?
Hope you understand why governement involvement is needed.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Everyone of us!
This is what we have said all along: "Reasonably priced (according to cost, not to traditional prices and unencumbered by nasty DRM schemes, we are willing to pay for music"
If this indictment goes forward, it might give honest distributors the occasion to prove the point. The cost of downloading a song on the Internet is pennies. Even considering a decent profit, a reasonable pricing will do wonders to discourage pirating. The value is there for the consumer and the business model is simple.
The message of this is: stop suing your consumers or your consumers will beging to sue you back!
This only affects those of us who choose to pay for music. :V
I've solved the problem on my end.
I don't buy music anymore.
I can live without it -- the real question is, can they live without my money? The answer to that one is probably also "yes", but that's okay. I'm not out to destroy them, I just don't want to be a supporter of their industry anymore.
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
Without the DMCA and other strong copyright and licensing regulation there wouldn't be any point to the kind of DRM in the "Sony Rootkit", or Windows Media Player 9 and later, or Palladium, because there wouldn't have been any laws criminalizing reverse engineering. You'd buy the CD and pick up the patch to Windows to disable the DRM at the checkout counter.
This kind of after-the-fact bandaid on a few of the worst excesses of government interference in the market is hardly proof that the government needs to be involved.
The music recording and distribution companies have come to the end of their usefulness. They are like dinosaurs in the space age.
Because recording and distribution has now been commoditized by the internet, there is no need for a "Recording and Distribution" specialized commercial function between the music artists and their fans and customers.
Don't you think that the recording industry sees that reality, and when anything is fighting for it's life, like the music Recording Industry is, there are "no holds barred". But that won't stop nature taking its course, extinction and replacement with something more suited is always inevitable.
Because Elliot Spitzer has ambition to higher office (where he'll certainly get my vote), whereas other states' attorneys general are content with sitting on their asses?
Just a theory.
I've upped my standards, so up yours.
Money is no longer real. Its simply printed and/or blipped on computers. It is not backed by gold or silver like it used to be. The money holders (banks) hold less and charge people for giving it away (service) and they don't even own anything besides nice buildings (although that is changing). Its pretty much a crime to own a decent amount of cash money for some reason.
You know, I was reading that just as I was thinking if there was ever a kind of way that I could give a christmas present to people I don't even know. And then it came to me - my gift to people this year is the plea:
"PLEASE BUY GOLD AND SILVER".
Really! and I am not a "gold kook", it's just that the same information age forces that are killing the copyright cartell are also going to kill central banks ability to lie to people about the value of their currency. I am serious, the economic fundamentals today are WAY worse than the 80's when gold went to $850 usd/oz. Also, today the economony is sevral times more efficient so when the adjustment happens, it will happen several times faster. During the great depression, our currency came out OK, because it was backed by gold. During the 80's our currency came out OK, because Americans didn't have much debt. This time it really is different, and there is nothing to stop the US economy from heading off a hyperinflationary debt cliff after the over-indebted housing market falters and that's why the silver and gold market have been going up so high over the last 5 years.
Food for thought: in 1935, there was about $35 in circulation for every ounce of gold held by the central banks, in 2005 there is about $35000 in circulation for every ounce of gold held by the central banks. People should really buy silver and gold like their butts depended on it. Merry Christmas!!!!
Oh, it's loaded with factual errors too!
Genesis, "The gods (ELOHIM) said" version of the creation myth: birds made days before man
Genesis, The Eden creation myth: Adam names the birds as they are created by God (YHWH)
Not only do we have multiple incompatible orders of creation, but we have disagreement on something as basic as whether there is one god or multiple. But don't worry, the bible is still a great guide for living a moral life. In fact, it can be interpreted to make just about any act a moral one. Nazis killed Jews because Jews killed Jesus (This does not invoke Godwin's law, as the original Godwin's law requires comparing your opponent to Hitler or a Nazi. I am using Nazis to disprove the idea that "actions based on the bible are inherently moral")
And what happens when higher prices cause less people to download from pay sites? The music industry claims that every download is a lost sale. So is this intended to create more lost sales? If you can't get your fully inflated price, then you won't take any price? That kind of thinking only made sense when you actually did mostly control the only source of supply. Then along came the cassette deck recorder and your lives have never been the same since.
People are obviously stupid in so much as they continue to support the music industry at its present prices (I remember when CDs first came out the promise was that as manufacturing efficiencies increased that prices would actually drop significantly), but even stupid people reach a point where they know they're being ripped off -- and don't like it!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I suppose you think that means something, but I think all it means is that you don't really know much about the whole micropayment problem. It really does exist, and if you do as I suggested and google for it, you'll find that a great deal of brainpower has been thrown at it, with less than stellar results. Wikipedia is not a bad place to start, just look up micropayments there.
AIG has restated their earnings for the last 5 years (which is a massively big deal, for those of you who don't know), and in doing so, changed their estimated net worth from about 81 billion to 79 billion. Whooo-fucking-hooo.
Hey dumbass, that's TWO BILLION DOLLARS.
I know if I was a shareholder of AIG I would be rightfully pissed.
Lying about the worth of the company is one step away from actually stealing two billion dollars.
I think he was hoping AIG was the next Enron, and when it turned out it wasn't even close, he got vicious and couldn't let it go, despite the fact he is hurting a lot of innocent people in the process.
If these people are innocent, then why is AIG restating their earnings? The actual facts you've present run completely counter to your accusations of trying to ruin people's lives for no reason.
Of course, I am a bit biased, since I personally know some of the people whose careers he has ruined and finances he has messed up.
What this statement does not say is that you personally know that these people are innocent of any wrongdoing.
Bullshit like this is a big drain on our economy. Why would you invest in any company only to find out you just paid too much because they lied in their legally required disclosures?
Life is too short to proofread.