RIAA Settlement: Possible Consumer Payback

KoopaTroopa writes "Over on Ars Technica they are running a story about the RIAA handing out consumer payments as a settlement to a price-fixing class action. If you bought a recording at retail between Jan. 1, 1995, and Dec. 22, 2000, claim your money." As usual, the lawyers win a lot more than you will, but the process is pretty painless if you'd like to collect part of the settlement money; you may recall this earlier story about the settlement.

No thanks.

[TheSHAD0W]

In order to get my few dollars, I have to give out all my personal info, social security number, mother's maiden name, etc, etc? No thanks. I don't care how official that web site looks; that's enough information to steal everything I own and trash my credit rating for the next thousand years.

Price Fixing Has Ended?

[delphin42]

If you bought a recording at retail between Jan. 1, 1995, and Dec. 22, 2000

Are we to believe that as of Dec 22, 2000 all price fixing on the part of the music industry ceased? Or will there be a similar suit in 2005 to cover the next 5 years?

I was going to but...

[fgb]

I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of giving them my date of birth and the last four digits of my Social Security Number.

Big whoop ...

[nucal]

Cash Distribution

The cash paid by the Defendants, after the payment of attorneys' fees, litigation and Settlement administration costs, shall be distributed to consumers who purchased Music Products. The number of claims filed will determine the actual amount of the individual refund but will not exceed $20.00 per claimant. If the number of claims filed would result in refunds of less than $5.00 per claimant, there will be no cash distribution to individual consumers. Rather, the cash portion of the Settlement shall be distributed to not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs for the benefit of consumers who purchased Music Products.

This kind of settlement won't benefit consumers directly. Even if you could locate six year old receipts, the odds are pretty good you won't get a direct settlement out of this.

Re:No thanks.

[k3v0]

i thought the same thing but then i realized you can get all that stuff pretty easily already. you may as well get 5 bucks

Buy a CD

[night_flyer]

get 5.00 back in the laswsuit

buy 100 CDs get 5.00 back in the lawsuit...

that means I got overcharged 2 cents for each of my CDs...

how about they lower the prices instead?

I just love the bias-free journalism

[falloutboy]

"As usual, the lawyers win a lot more than you will, but the ..."

This may come as a huge surprise, but the lawyers actually earned that money. All you had to do was fill out a form on the web.

Payments Could Be Nullfied

[aSiTiC]

It is being spread that you will get $20 for a claim. In fact you will get $20 if less than 3.375 million people make claims because they are only paying a total of $67.5 million.

In fact, if more than 13.5 million people make claims which causes each claim to be less than $5 than everybody gets NOTHING. I wouldn't be surprised if more than 13.5 million people do make claims with all the press this story will get. The RIAA will probably try to get more press so that payments are nullified.

I'm curious to know where all the money goes if the average payment is less than $5... Do the lawyers get a week in Bermuda?

They're still doing it

[rossz]

I would assume they settled out of course instead of paying this as part of a judgement. If they had gone the whole distance in court they would have had to pay refunds AND stop price fixing. I haven't seen any drop in CD prices, so it's obvious they haven't changed their practices one bit.

No doubt the RIAA attornies realized they would lose the case and be forced to sell music at reasonable prices. They can't have that! So settle for a few measly millions, instead.

Re:Big whoop ...

[iMMo]

Agreed - big whoop. I've bought *hundreds* of CDs over the last several years, and $20.00 doesn't seem like enough if the prices were in fact 'fixed'. This entire activity seems like an easy way for the recording companies to 'make good' on their past, present and future monopolizing.

Between the several large conglomerates, I've got to believe that it wasn't hard to come up with $67 million to pay out this settlement. Will this really change anything?

Re:No thanks.

[SirSlud]

Why the hell is the US working on a missle defence system? Wouldnt it be more logical to make a country-sized tinfoil dome?

(On a more serious note, I can trash your credit rating by sitting at a restaurant you pay credit with. Your waitress can trash your credit rating. Anybody with access to your garbage can trash your credit rating. What on earth are you people so terrified of?)

so they've been caught...

[YrWrstNtmr]

...and have stopped screwing us. Riiight.

ummm...when did CD prices go down by $5 each? Did I miss it? Or did they just factor in inflation, and keep prices the same?(even thought their production costs have dropped)

fushing FEEVES!!

Website to file a claim

[tbonium]

Um, you would be pretty stupid to file the claim on the website.

No encryption/SSL on the website, so your name, DOB, last 4 of SSN, etc. all belong to us.

I would have have rather ...

[Frag-A-Muffin]

seen them lower current prices. It's a double win for them. a) We're sorry, have CDs from now on at the right price b) After lowering prices to the proper amounts, maybe people will start buying CDs again and maybe they can shutup about mp3s 'killing' their business.

Who am I kidding. This is the RIAA. They'll probably still try to milk their customers and find ways to NOT pay people from this 'settlement'. :)

Here's an idea

[quintessent]

The way these always go, nobody really gets $20 or whatever out of it. Everyone will get a check for about 50 cents in the mail, and the lawyers will get new beach houses in San Diego. Now, this suit is a good cause, since the industry has been using tactics to fix prices and push them ever higher. However, rather than sleeping through the process, we should do something. Notice this from the web site:

The Court will hold a Fairness Hearing to determine if the proposed Settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate on May 22, 2003, at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom 2, United States Courthouse, 156 Federal Street, Portland, Maine 04101. If you remain a member of the Settlement Group, you or your counsel have the right to appear before the Court and object to the Settlement. However, you must file a Notice of Intention to Appear and Object...

Do you live near Maine? There is a good chance the settlement will not go far enough. The lawyers don't care, as long as they get their beach houses, but we, the actual party being represented, ought to. If you live in the area, check out the settlement, and if you disagree, say so in court. You don't need a lawyer, but try to be extremely well prepared when you go. Do your homework, and be prepared to represent those millions of us in a way the lawyers may not. If you're a lawyer yourself, all the better. Let's make sure this is fair.

Re:I just love the bias-free journalism

[pr0t0plasm]

I bought over 180 CDs between the years in guestion. I'm pretty sure nefarious price fixing cost me more than $20. All I had to do was overpay for every music purchase I've made to date due to an oligopoly's illegal collusion.

Uhh, we didn't have to earn the money

[cmoney]

It was ours to begin with. Record companies were found to be overcharging customers and the courts took action to give it back to consumers. So the lawyers did some work so they should be compensated for their work, I agree, but implying that I should have to earn my money back is rediculous!

Re:No thanks RIAA

[quintessent]

What does getting a check for a few cents in the mail have to do with resolving the CD pricing issue? The RIAA was fixing prices then, and they have only pushed them higher since.

Part of their guilt came from their prohibition against any store advertising CDs below a certain price. Strangely, I haven't seen much of a change.

In any case, CDs are priced WAY too high. Now whether it's ok to copy based on that is another story.

Also, don't you find it strange that each time you back up your data to a CD, you have just paid a tax to the RIAA?

Re:quite whining and read the form

[ChaosDiscord]

they don't ask for your social security #, they ask for the last 4 digits. They also don't ask for mother's maiden name

Unfortunately many financial institutions use the last four digits of your social security number as a password of sorts. It's sometimes used directly as a PIN, and sometimes as the initial password when you set up online banking for the first time. Armed with a name, address, date of birth, and last four digits of your social security number, you could get access to many bank accounts.

Now, a financial institution shouldn't use your SSN as a password of any sort, but there is still no reason for these people to requirement.

Oh happiness

[DarkHand]

If I DO get a check from the settlement, I'm framing it and putting it on my wall. For once the record companies are paying ME! :) (Nevermind the various p2p networks... They're for sharing non-copyrighted material of course.)

Re:I just love the bias-free journalism

[quintessent]

This may come as a huge surprise, but the claimants have been cheated out of a lot of money, and are only getting a tiny fraction of it back. Whether the lawyers earned it, I can't say. Often, they don't.

For example, I read that the lawyers involved in the tobacco settlement ended up with about $60000 USD per hour of work. Something tells me they were overpaid, even if I fully supported suing big tobacco. Nobody works hard enough to deserve $60000 per hour.

Signing also says you agree.

[nurb432]

If you sign this you also agree in whole to the agreement, with what apears to be no future recourse.

I say *noone* sign and we fight for whats really far.

A free cd ? bah thats not fair settlement.

Re:Website to file a claim

[Anonymous Coward]

If you would open the signup frame in a new window, you would see that it does have encryption. (Direct link to the claim form: https://webform.musiccdsettlement.com/english/form s/questions.aspx ) [musiccdsettlement.com]

Cash Distribution -- 20 Bucks Max

[pnatural]

From the page http://www.musiccdsettlement.com/english/default.h tm [musiccdsettlement.com]:

Cash Distribution

The cash paid by the Defendants, after the payment of attorneys' fees, litigation and Settlement administration costs, shall be distributed to consumers who purchased Music Products. The number of claims filed will determine the actual amount of the individual refund but will not exceed $20.00 per claimant. If the number of claims filed would result in refunds of less than $5.00 per claimant, there will be no cash distribution to individual consumers. Rather, the cash portion of the Settlement shall be distributed to not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs for the benefit of consumers who purchased Music Products.
IMPORTANT - If you are a member of the Settlement Group, you can only file one claim per person no matter how many Music Products you purchased.

So, let's see. Between '95 and '00 I've purchased at least 100 CDs (that's only 20 a year, but I'm being conservative in my estimate). 100 discs, 20 bucks for the settlement. That's a whopping 20 cents per disc.

Thank you, laywers! I can retire now.

Re:No thanks RIAA

[Anonvmous Coward]

"I'd rather rationalize my mp3 theft by saying CD prices are too high."

Theft is when you sell a consumer something they can't preview or return. "Open your mouth and close your eyes!"

Re:No thanks.

[The_K4]

Thats why for any on-line purchases (or places where the card is going to leave my sight) I use a card with a 1K limit, and I check the callances on-line at least 2x a week (it takes like 5 min to log in and check it). If someone want to mess with that card go for it. As for my garbage i've got a file of every reciept going back 3 years, at the end of that it gets shredded on it's way out (takes like 20 min to shred a whole year). Problem solved. All it really takes to protect your self is to keep an eye out. I had that CC stolen one (on-line). I noticed the charges right away, called the bank, they re-issued the card and removed the 2 bad charges. End of problem. As for my SSN, hell more sites use it for logings then i care to think about (most financial sites ask for it) and wone of my friend's banks uses it as her account number, so it's on every check she writes (the whole 9 digits!). Your info is out there. Just check it yourself to make sure that nothing looks fishy. Hell if you don't order a Credit Report once a year and review it, your asking for trouble.

Re:No Cash Option.

[happyclam]

Instead, the money will go to "not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs for the benefit of consumers who purchased Music Products"....

Presumably, these programs for the "benefit of consumers who purchased Music Products" will no doubt be aimed at educating the public about the threat of music piracy...

Putting in my two centers, one thousand times...

[gilroy]

I'm going to put in a claim, then use that $20 to support the EFF (or maybe a different consumer-rights organization). Let's use the record companies' money against them!

P2P and MP3 are killing the industry.

[t0qer]

At the bottom of my sig, you'll see the mag I donate my webmastering skills too. We're a local zine for the silicon valley music scene.

Before ppl ask "SV has a music scene?" remember, bands like green day come out of here. Our music scene is totally different than that of L.A.'s a.k.a. Hollywood. I can't describe it, because I see everything as data, but I can tell you what the musicians are fearing.

So today, i'm riding around delivering the latest issue of Zero with one of our big bosses. Boss delivering zines you ask? It's hard times, everyone is pulling double effort.

Anyways, this cat is a musician, and .5 owner of the zine. When we went to the different bay area wherehouse music stores today, we found out some alarming news.

All Wherehouse music stores around our area are shutting down... We have noticed a trend too, less people in other music stores.

So who's to blame? Napster? The economy? Pirates?

Well, my partner started asking questions about the technology. He's what I would call a reforming luddite (yeah strong words but he'd agree with me) "Isn't there some way they could make a CD so it's uncopyable?" he asked. I explained to him as long as there was some sort of digital, to a speaker coil coversion, the RIAA will never be able to stamp out piracy.

"Well who the fuck would want to download a shitty copy of a song then!" he chirped.

"The same fucks that would bring a camera into AOTC's, compress it to mpeg and share it over kazaa" I replied.

Stumped, he went back to his first question. After repeating that there had to be some way of doing it 3 times I answered..

"Yeah, if they could convince everyone to replace their ears with DRM enabled digital implants, then yeah the RIAA has a chance"

Well, he got the point after that. So he moved onto "How do you stamp out P2P?"

I put it into another analogy for him. Napster with it's central peer topology is much like a football team with 1 quarterback. You sack the quarterback.. You sack the network.

"So the RIAA can just sack kazaa right?"

"No, Kazaa would be the equivelent of every player on the team being both QB and reciever"

See, our zine stays alive by record lables having the money to buy adspace from us. If the record lables are losing money from P2P it affects us because they've yet to evolve to the net.

"What should they do?"

Personally, I think the record lables should ditch CD production altogether now. They should make songs freely downloadable. Fuck it, cut their losses.

But rather than look at it like a loss, the record industry should take a Las Vegas approach to it. Just use the music as a "comp" to milk money out of people in other ways.

For instance, that $50 dollar green day ticket, fuck it, if people won't buy the albums anymore, double it. I think people wouldn't care if they had to pay more for live performances. I'm biased because I do get in for free, and don't have any money to pay for tickets anyways. I'm 30 years old in feburary and am perfectly content to staying at home.

The market is really for 14-25 year olds. Those are the people with expendable cash. They live at home, don't have a mortgage, and can afford $100 bucks to see a live performance. With the rate of inflation over the last 10 years, $100 doesn't really seem like a lot to me to see a big headliner band if I had no financial obligations.

I'm the oldest of 6, my youngest siblings are more at home in the computer enviroment than I ever was at their age. The RIAA doesn't realize this yet, but their biggest age group has a huge understanding of internet distribution, and they will never be able to beat it. That's just an unfortunate fact about it.

So to recap the RIAA should...

Cut back CD production,
Raise the price of live performances
Focus on promotion more than CD distribution.

Well, it's 3:30, and after a night of bouncing 300lb pac islanders from my karaoke bar, I need some sleep. Slash you in the morning and I hope your friday was as fun as mine.

--Toq