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British Record Companies Win £41m In Damages

Posted by kdawson on from the segmenting-the-world dept.

Benjamin Fox writes "The BBC is reporting that online retailer CD-Wow has been ordered to pay £41m to the British Phonographic Industry. The London High Court ruled that Hong Kong-based CD-Wow, which imports cheap (but genuine) CDs from Hong Kong and elsewhere into the U.K., is '"in substantial breach" of a 2004 agreement to stop importing CDs.' This is a serious blow to proponents of an open, no-barrier music market."

7 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Cry me a river. by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful


    Record companies win 41m damages

    Which they will, naturally, turn over to the artists...

    FTA: "It is vital that all retailers compete on a level playing field," said director general Kim Bayley. "Illegal imports threaten that level playing field and threaten British jobs."

    Cry me a river, think of your jobs as being "outsourced" to Hong Kong. Your brick & mortar record stores are going the way of the haberdashery and cooper workshop. Be creative and come up with a new business model or go extinct.

    Being in business for X years doesn't give you a mystical right to be in business for X+1.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Cry me a river. by joe_adk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It always bugs me when things like this happen. Businesses can outsource their labor and production, but we can't outsource our merchants.

  2. B.S. by ushering05401 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From TFA:

    "The vibrancy of British music depends on a fair return on the investments that allow British talent to shine.

    "This decision is an important step in ensuring that British music has a bright future."

    So my question is... Why are the cd's being sold at such low prices in places like Hong Kong, where this company is buying them for resale in England. How are the artists getting a fair return selling their albums for such low prices in Hong Kong?

    Regards.

  3. Small Victory by Smight · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does the phonograph industry really think they have a chance against the CD industry?

    --
    IOU one (1) signature
  4. The Hypocrisy by MrSteveSD · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm really sick and tired of the hypocrisy. When we lose our jobs to cheaper workers overseas, big business tells us that it's unfortunate but it's the harsh realities of the international business etc. Yet when that same market threatens them, the government steps in to protect them.

  5. Re:Ah, globalisation by capnez · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm still waiting to hear an even vaguely plausible reason why record companies charge vastly more for a music CD [...] in the UK than to buy that same CD from Hong Kong including shipping halfway around the world [...]. And I'll be waiting a long time, because there isn't one.
    You are right - if consumers were able to participate in the global market on the same level as multinational corporations, this would be no problem. Today, the corporations get to conduct cheap business abroad, but consumers are still hampered by tariffs, taxes, etc. The soluction is not to restrict the corporations, but to further liberate private citizens across the globe (who should be just as free to do whatever they want).
    Your cynical definiton of globalization is skewed. Globalization should mean more and global freedom for everybody. For many companies and ordinary citizens, this is already a reality (in the European Union, for example). What we need to do now is to make globalization the reality for everybody. For example, this would mean that a UK citizen can buy CDs in Hong Kong or anywhere else (usually where they get them for the cheapest price).

    However, in this special case we are dealing with, the company apparently broke an "agreement" (i.e., a contract) - although TFA is not very clear what exactly happend (speaking of "breaking [a] 2004 court undertaking [...]", whatever that is), and if they did that, they are lawfully punished for it.

    Anyway, the course must not be more restrictions - it must be more openness and liberty for companies and citizens alike.
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    Axe me while I slumber
  6. grey importing legal in Australia by atmurray · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interestingly, in Australia the court system has found on several occasions to date that "grey importing" (unofficial importing) is legal and in fact (as sony found out: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/06/ 1211211) circumvention of devices which prevent grey importing (e.g mod chips which get around region encoding) is also legal. It's interesting/scary how countries seem to go in virtually completely different directions on some of these issues (and in this case it is the UK and Australia which have inherited the same legal system).