CD Price-Fixing Suit Ruling 292
Jay Langhurst writes "As the AP reported Friday, if you filed a claim before March 3, 2003 online or otherwise you'll be getting a gift in the mail from those monopolistic music companies in the form of a check for about $13!"
I dunno... (Score:5, Funny)
$13.00! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$13.00! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:$13.00! (Score:5, Informative)
Let me make the job easiler for everyone.
EFF [eff.org]
FSF [fsf.org]
Re:$13.00! (Score:5, Informative)
Donate To Chewplastic (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Donate To Chewplastic (Score:2)
Re:Donate To Chewplastic (Score:5, Interesting)
Check out his site - he's already received over $10,000 in donations since the settlement.
Re:Donate To Chewplastic (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Donate To Chewplastic (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm donating my 13 sawbucks to this poor kids fund. I just hope that it doesn't get sucked up by the RIAA or the legal system.
Bastards...
But, as of 17:51 here's this post from Chewplastic:
"Thanks to the many generous people that have donated, I have recovered over 83% of my money lost to the RIAA. "
Whee! We CAN make a difference!
SB
Also Donate to This Guy the RIAA Screwed (Score:5, Informative)
On a brief sidenote, this makes me very proud in the redeming qualities of the Internet and the overwhelming spirit of helping the Davids of the world fight thier Goliaths.
Re:Actually... (Score:2)
I think he was saying that the $12000 is about
Re:Actually... (Score:3, Insightful)
The article said that the RIAA was paying out $12.63 to more than 3.5 million consumers, so it's paying at least 44.2 million dollars.
The parent of the original poster was commenting that sending the $13 back to the kid whose life savings was taken away was just returning his own money; however, that $12000 only comprises 0.0000271% of the total settlement, so I highly doubt they're somehow covering it all with it.
FSF? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$13.00! (Score:5, Funny)
I'll be honest (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$13.00! (Score:2)
Re:$13.00! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:$13.00! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:$13.00! (Score:2)
Re:$13.00! (Score:2)
Re:$13.00! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$13.00! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:$13.00! (Score:2)
Re:$13.00! (Score:2)
Re:$13.00! (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon also makes it very easy to buy used CDs at significantly less. To all you folks out there, you should be buying used whenever possible (which means almost always). If it's a new release you want, wait two days and somebody will be selling it on Amazon used (just click on the "XX used & new from $X.XX" link under "more buying options" on the right side of any product page).
This is the real way to send a message to the RIAA: don't buy their product; -or- if you have to buy their product, buy it so they don't make any revenue on the sale. If you want the artist to get money, buy the CD used, then go to the artist's webpage (most have them) and send what you saved when buying a used CD directly to the artist as a gift; it will be more than what they would have made on a new CD sale.
Re:$13.00! (Score:2)
Yeah! Let's go fnd some capitalists and beat them up for making you buy all those CDs!
Those bastards and their creepy free markets!
Re:$13.00! (Score:5, Insightful)
How abotu when the government finds out that 5 major labels have been colluding to fix the prices on CDs, they make them all give $13 to whoever signs up, and then shake hands and say "All in a day's work," and nothing changes? That is paltry in response for how long it went on before we found out. Is that promoting capitalism or consumerism? Competition? Or the fleecing of America (and the world?!?) by people who have enough money to influence the government? When do the people wake up and realize it's not fair, and they keep voting along party lines for people that are only harming them?
Re:$13.00! (Score:2)
There's no reason why the two can't co-exist. Like in Europe
$13? (Score:3, Interesting)
Where have you been shopping? (Score:2)
However, I do not believe that the ruling in question applies to Canada. (I haven't read the article -- keep getting distracted by Blazing Saddles.
And here it's expensive, too! (Score:2)
Re:And here it's expensive, too! (Score:2)
Funny thing is that the new CDs at Best Buy are usually around $13 or $14, but the older ones are like $17 to $21. That kinda sucks.
Re:And here it's expensive, too! (Score:2)
Funny thing is that the new CDs at Best Buy are usually around $13 or $14, but the older ones are like $17 to $21. That kinda sucks.
It really sucks. There are old albums I've paid for twice already, once on vinyl and again on tape. If I want it on CD, it costs me another $20, more than I paid for the vinyl and tape combined. The music I'm talking about is 20-30 years old -- it's not like the RIAA hasn't made enough money off of it already. And many of the performers are dead. How does the artificial
Wow! (Score:5, Funny)
free money? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:free money? (Score:2)
Did they actually ask for receipts?
Nope. You just filled out an online form. I'm sure there was an affidavit in there somewhere, but I didn't look real hard.
Poetic justice (Score:2)
When.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When.... (Score:2)
Re:They never lowered the price (Score:2)
RIAA Numbers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:RIAA Numbers (Score:2)
It's too bad that businesses don't vote. All economists agree that the falling dollar hurts the american public. And the american public votes.
No, wait. We don't vote. Nevermind.
Re:RIAA Numbers (Score:3, Funny)
Instead, it is much more effecient if businesses just purchase enough congress-critters and senators. And guess what, this strategy works!
Now, if I could find a handy US Senator or two on eBay... [smile]
The heck with that, I want lower prices. (Score:5, Funny)
RTFA (Score:4, Informative)
Now, you would have had to read a whole 6 words to figgure that out, so posting a question was so much easier.
Just to clear things up a bit more, since you won't read the article, here is a quote:
" The defendants â" Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music Distribution, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corp., Universal Music Group and Bertelsmann Music Group, and retailers Tower Records, Musicland Stores and Transworld Entertainment â" deny any wrongdoing. Attorneys representing the companies declined to testify in court. "
Re:RTFA (Score:5, Insightful)
So everyone who's getting the money has agreed that the music companies didn't fix prices.
In effect, if you're getting that 13 dollar check, don't bitch about the cost of CDs, you lost that right when you agreed to the settlement.
Re:RTFA (Score:5, Interesting)
When you signed up as a claimant, you accepted the terms of the settlement. You said "Yes, the state attorneys general came up with a solution that I find to be adequate".
As pursuant to that, you can't personally do anything else against the industry in terms of price fixing....When you registered, the issue became closed to you.
Me? I haven't bought a CD in years. This money is going into an iPod, so I can play all those lovely 192 kbps mp3s....yummm....
(or maybe tuition....heh)
Re:RTFA (Score:2)
The Defendants have denied and continue to deny each and all of the claims and contentions alleged by the Plaintiffs and any violation of law. The Court has not made any determination as to the merits of any of the claims or defenses of the parties to this Litigation.
So they were not "Found Guilty" of anything. Yes, the judge may have had nasty things to say about them, but legally, they werent found guilty.
Use the money (Score:4, Insightful)
$13... (Score:2)
Wow, a whole $13 (Score:5, Insightful)
We've got the recording industry in a vulnerable spot. It's time to withhold cash from them and go in for the kill.
Re:Wow, a whole $13 (Score:2)
Re:Wow, a whole $13 (Score:2)
Free? Do the math. The poster probably bought the CDs at prices between $15-$20. Assuming he/she bought 100 CDs, he/she values them between $2-$7. Not free.
Maybe $2 is a low figure, but $7 isn't. The costs for the disk, packaging, shipping, and operating a retail chain can't be more than $2 per CD. If it is, they are a bunch of stupid fucktards who can't run a business and should be smothered into the ground. A $5 profit split between the musician, label, and store is more than plenty.
Re:Wow, a whole $13 (Score:2, Interesting)
And they can do so all they want. They can cry foul while I listen to independent artists. Sure, they'll be able to get some lobbying done, but _without my money._ If enoough of us start doing this, the big 5 will crumble rather quickly, and look even sillier as Indies that respect artists, or better yet, artists themselves rise. As Ani DiFranco used to state in th
Re:is it really still a rip off (Score:4, Interesting)
not so (Score:4, Informative)
what ever you do, don't buy a cD! (Score:5, Insightful)
boycott-riaa.com [boycott-riaa.com]
digital-consumer.org [digitalconsumer.org]
do something useful and fight this idiotic RIAA crap!
Re:what ever you do, don't buy a cD! (Score:5, Insightful)
At CD Baby [cdbaby.com] we work directly with 38,000 musicians (NO record labels) that are selling their music direct to the world.
Just like we should all support the independent programming projects [slashdot.org] when possible, you should support independent music so that these big record labels will have to reinvent themselves or die.
Hurt the record labels, not the musicians themselves. Do a musician a favor. Bypass the labels. Buy direct [cdbaby.com] . (My little store alone has paid over $3 million directly to musicians [cdbaby.org] in the last couple years.)
(See our flavor [cdbaby.com] galleries for some real creative browsing.)
Re:what ever you do, don't buy a cD! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:what ever you do, don't buy a cD! (Score:5, Informative)
Indie bands need the support, plus, they appreciate their fans' support. Win-Win situation.
Suprinsing.. (Score:2)
How should I spend this moeny? Maybe we can start some sort of collective slashdot "Anti-RIAA/MPAA fund" out of all the checks we get. I doubt we could all agree on 1 use for the moeny that hurts the RIAA
Re:Suprinsing.. (Score:2, Funny)
How should I spend this moeny? Maybe we can start some sort of collective slashdot "Anti-RIAA/MPAA fund" out of all the checks we get. I doubt we could all agree on 1 use for the moeny that hurts the RIAA, but it's sure be nice (and fun).
You should listen to the RIAA more often. All we would need to do is make a new p2p sharing program.
Only $13? (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop seeing it as a $13 issue (Score:4, Insightful)
Now that we have precedence, maybe there should be waves upon waves of this class action. If there is relentless waves of such cases, hopefully the RIAA will get the point, and look at other distribution models more carefully...
Not that I'm holding my breath anyway.
Re:Stop seeing it as a $13 issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, it IS a $13.00 issue. Let's see, the recording industry got at least hundreds of dollars from almost every person here ($100 = about 7 or 8 CDs). A few will get $13.00 back. Who wins, you or the RIAA?
Also, a $45M settlement is pennies for the RIAA. They will not feel anything. They would feel the pain if this was 2 billion or even 500 million, but not for $45M.
IANAL: Failure to Exclude from Class Action Suit (Score:2)
I never included myself, so I don't get a settlement, and I don't care about that because I didn't want those settlement terms, anyway.
But since I didn't explicitly exclude myself, does that mean I've lost all legal options to pursue a claim that they conspired to price gouge me?
Re:IANAL: Failure to Exclude from Class Action Sui (Score:2)
As a lot of people here are discussing, it was up to THEM to either join or explicitly exlude themselves from the suit. Even if they didn't know about it, they're screwed from future actions similar to this.
Re:Stop seeing it as a $13 issue (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't spend it on more RIAA! (Score:2, Interesting)
They're really not just garage bands anymore. Go browse your favorite style of music over at CD Baby [cdbaby.com], and check out their editor's picks. Really amazing stuff there, and all of your money goes directly to the MUSICIAN [cdbaby.com] not to the very record labels who this lawsuit was against!
Re:Don't spend it on more RIAA! (Score:3, Interesting)
This lawsuit and subesquent settlement has nothing to do with losing money due to P2P trading, so please don't try to associate the two. The RIAA has been ordered to pay damages that were caused when they conspired to raise prices of a commodity without the knowlege of the general public. Once again, that's CONSIPIRACY, which is ILLEGAL .
You're right about the way people steal music (to a point), but it's not hurting th
$13? (Score:5, Insightful)
The real winners here, of course, are the lawyers. A large portion of the remaining $23.3 million goes to them.
Just a hunch, but I imagine it comes out to a tad more than $13 for each for them.
IANAL, but right now I wish I was.
It's been said before but: (Score:2, Insightful)
Wow: $13... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow: $13... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about (Score:2)
Step in what direction?
Why am I only getting $13 back when I probably lost $500 or more to this illegal garbage?
Why is it that I could rob a 7-11 of $100 and get jail time, but companies can rob the populus of MILLIONS of dollars and they are immune to every
Re:How about (Score:3, Insightful)
Record companies aren't holding a gun to your head and forcing you to buy one of their $18+ CDs. I don't side with record companies on this case either (as I'm one of the ones getting a $13 check), but your analogy doesn't fit.
Re:How about (Score:3, Insightful)
From m-w.com:
robbery:
: the act or practice of robbing; specifically : larceny from the person or presence of another by violence or threat
This is NOT what record companies are/were doing. Your analogy does not fit.
this was the same site (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:this was the same site (Score:2)
iTunes Music Store (Score:2, Insightful)
Hey, that's 13 songs I can download from the iTunes Music Store [applemusic.com]!!
13 bucks (Score:3, Funny)
it's not going to stop (Score:3, Interesting)
Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants conspired to illegally raise the prices of prerecorded Music Products by implementing Minimum Advertised Price policies, in violation of State and Federal laws.
I thought that was illegal... Now someone explain to me, why is it that I still hear so many commercials saying "prices so low we're not even allowed to say them here!" And then someone else tell me, where can I buy popular dvds wholesale?
Does this settlement help price fixing? (Score:4, Interesting)
$75.7 million/5.6 million CDs = $13.52 per CD. But isn't that the 'fixed' price for CDs? Wasn't this suit about how they should be priced much lower?
This strikes me much like the proposed settlement in the Microsoft case that had them distributing several hundred milliion dollars worth of software and operating systems to schools. In that case, it was a little bit more blatant, since it was obviously an attempt to use the settlement to undercut Apple's education market without fear of repercussions. In both, though, the settlement is for an inflated dollar value that doesn't really reflect the cost of the product they're distributing.
-T
Woo woo! (Score:2)
Now I will have $13 and they will not. $13? Thats a free pizza + a good tip for the driver.
I love class action lawsuits!
They want what for $13? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's ok, keep your money and I'll settle my claim via kazaa.
They've already weaseled a way around it (Score:5, Interesting)
The Eagles just released a single and instead of selling it through everybody, they only are selling it through one retailer! So even though the "price fixing" lawsuit finished, by selling through only one retailer, the music consumer ends up paying a higher price because the retailer doesn't have to compete for business. Using this Eagles single and the new Metallica as an example:
The new Metallica: loads of competition. Best Buy price for first week: 9.99. Wholesale price to record stores (and Best Buy): 11 bucks and change. Net Margin? Negative!
The Eagles DVD single. no competition. Best Buy price: 6.99. Wholesale price to record stores (and Best Buy): 4-5 bucks. Net Margin? 28-40%
Also, compare the price of that DVD single with others --- a lot of DVD singles have run only a couple of bucks (heck, the last McCartney DVD single was actually FREE to encourage people to buy the full length) --- so in this case the manufacturer actually raised their price also because there would be no competition on it.
The frustrating thing about this is that the Eagles are directly responsible - they made this big deal about leaving all the major record companies - but when they did, they made even worse decisions than the major record companies did - independent record stores like mine are locked out from selling the record, while the one major company makes big bucks on it. Considering all the BS Don Henley gives about fighting corporations and such, he's just a washed up hypocrite.
Re:They've already weaseled a way around it (Score:2)
Just want to point out that the new Metallica CD contains an 80 minute DVD containing live performances of the entire album. Typically "free" DVDs are about 20 minutes, so you get quite a deal with this.
Re:They've already weaseled a way around it (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:They've already weaseled a way around it (Score:5, Funny)
Beauty (and value, in this case) is in the eye of the beholder. I'd akin an 80 minute Metallica live DVD with getting a root canal by a epileptic dentist.
Re:They've already weaseled a way around it (Score:4, Informative)
What Happens With Prices Now? (Score:2, Interesting)
Will prices of CDs go down? Will there be another class-action?
Will the prices go up? Will the RIAA say "We just had a lawsuit and we would cut CD prices, but there is still file-sharing and cannot afford it."
Lots of questions, no answers.
But i dont agree with the ruling. (Score:5, Interesting)
I have over 500 LEGAL cds in my collection. I am owed more then a tiny 13 dollars.
Re:But i dont agree with the ruling. (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, I don't see this affecting the prices of CDs now. If new CDs were to drop to about $10 (maybe $15 for a double disc set) they'd pull in a lot more business.
Well, that an cancelling Madonna's contract and killing all the manufactured crap thats out now. Anyone catch her last video? Is it me or did it sound like a rake on a chalkboard to everyone else too?
RIAA will probably keep me from getting it (Score:3, Interesting)
Somebody, when they start the refunds please post info on what the refund looks like.
Re:great (Score:2)
The claim they weren't guilty, so there is no indication *whatsoever* that they're going to stop doing anything. They never did anything wrong in the first place. *wink wink*. CDs will continue to cost $20+ anywhere besides Wal-mart and Best Buy. Which is what they were being sued
Re:Why is price-fixing illegal in the first place? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why is price-fixing illegal in the first place? (Score:2)
Re:Why is price-fixing illegal in the first place? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Lawyers' bean feast (Score:2)