RIAA Dumps Unsold Inventory to Settle Anti-Trust Case 575
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."
This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Funny)
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!"
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Funny)
Say whatever you need to say to sit down with someone employeed by the RIAA. Lie a little if needed.
Roll up the newspaper, smack them over the head and say "No! Bad RIAA!"
Leave. Never buy another RIAA product again.
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Funny)
- Shaolin
- Killer Beez (on a swarm!)
- The Brooklyn Zoo
- Dollar Dollar Bills
Shame on ya, RIAA! Shame on ya!Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Funny)
I've always tried to teach my kids that word is, indeed, bond. And that the correct term for an interracial person of black and white descent is "dalmatian." And finally, the ODB/BBJ creation theorem: God made Dirt, and Dirt bust y'ass.
Quite.
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:3, Funny)
I wonder if they'll sue the schools for not paying for the cds afterwards.
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Insightful)
The RIAA is complaining about a loss of income, when one of us downloads a song for free, instead of paying for it.
The crap they handed out to the schools does NOT fall into that catagory. Who the hell would pay for any of that?
As someone else pointed out, getting rid of dead inventory like that was profitable (they no longer have to store it, and they get a tax write off).
So, once more, it's all about the benjamens.
It must be good stuff, it was on the Billboard! (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:It must be good stuff, it was on the Billboard! (Score:5, Interesting)
-B
Re:It must be good stuff, it was on the Billboard! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Insightful)
I still don't understand why the RIAA has so much political power when so much of the product that they sell is so clearly anti-social. Much rap and death-metal is clearly the results of disturbed individuals and a massively disfunctional culture.
I'm amazed that people who chose the appearance in public of gangster rappers and death-rockers complain that stangers are not inclined to assume that they are civilized human beings. They assume that this is prejudice and racism.
No, it's not. It's the result of a focused and unrelenting advertising campaign to sell rap music by portraying young males in hooded sweatshirts and other gangster fashions as the most violent and unpredictably disfunctional people on the planet.
And it has worked. Be a young male African-American with a backward baseball cap and go anywhere on earth. People will treat you like shit and just assume that you're a monster. It will take decades to reverse this new stereotype of hip-hop culture.
And what did young people of color get from all this negative stereotype casting? Nothing. A few individuals got big enough record contract advances to piss away on weird jewelery and pathetic SUVs. But nearly all the profits went to middle-aged white corporate executives, who would never let hip-hop individuals into their personal lives or social class environment.
Step'n Fetch'it is rolling in his grave.
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Funny)
> culturally we're breaking into distinct groups with very little cross-over and intermingling.
I used to think that way too until I talked to a Japanese kid on a skateboard wearing a Public Enemy shirt who talked about how much he loved Nine Inch Nails and John Coltrane.
Trust me. We're intermingling...
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:4, Informative)
"If I write loike this, 'oo dyaspose I am emulightin'? Wot sort of spaitch dya 'ere when you ride it? Kinyou hair a nyoo accent I am cratin'?"
My linguistics and grammar prof hated this sort of thing, because it really is quite racist to think that other cultures use variant spellings of words due to the way they pronounce them. That hasn't stopped just about every writer in the twentieth century from doing so...heck, even Shakespearre used to play on mispronunciation and poor grammar.
Re:This stuff is useful, look for yourself! (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually this is untrue. People are very adept at code-switching, which is using the proper dialect at the proper time. The only time we tend to have problems is when we don't know the code to switch into (or don't quite understand what makes one appropriate over another).
Although, depending on what you mean by "pushed to speak form (the) heart," you might have a very good point. A very famous sociolinguist (whose name escapes me at the moment) would always ask his interview subjects to describe an incident where they almost died. Reliving the stress of that moment would often cause them to revert to their base dialect, which is what he was interested in analyzing. The amount of stress you have to put on someone to reliably get them to go into that dialect is pretty incredible, however.
RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
The CD audio mastering profession, on the other hand, seems to be perfectly willing to sacrifice dynamic range for loudness, clipping be damned...
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Funny)
If you didn't know, Creed broke up... anything else is just details.
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Interesting)
Are you by any chance a US citizen?
In the rest of the world we let the parents raise their children
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't speak for the parent poster, but I was wondering the same thing. I am pretty sure that the comment was tongue-in-cheek, considering all the hoo-ha that went on over Janet Jacksons b--b. (sorry, don't want to fucking offend anyone). So the government can force radio hosts off of radio stations for using "obscene" language and references while the "beloved" Oprah is not held to the same standards. Yet the RIAA, the champions of good taste, are able to donate very questionable material to youth as part of a class-action settlement against them. It is all a ridiculous farce.
Some of us in the USA are quite aware of the idiocy that is going on in our society. I am personally embarassed that as a "free" society, we are so very far from it.
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
Home schooling is no better either. What you get there are socially inept children who are coddled and shielded from the real world.
With college retention rates in the terrible state they are, it is obvious. Kids in the US are not being raised in a fashion which allows them to get by in the real world.
I think the #1 factor in this is that many families have both parents working, so nobody is home to raise the children. I'm no anti-woman type. It doesn't matter if the mom or the dad stays home, but it has to be one of the two. The other problem is of course, divorce. Divorce is happening because people who were raised poorly are getting married.
So, what prevents one parent from staying home? Money, duh. They need more money. The income of one person cannot support the family of 4 unless you have a really good job. The problem though, is not inflation or unemployment or anything, although those factors contribute. The problem is consumerism. People buy things for the sake of buying things. They buy things they don't need. *cough* SUVs *cough*. In general people are trying to live at a higher standard of living than they can afford.
Why don't they stop doing that and be more frugal/intelligent and raise their children properly? Corporations. Advertising. Consumerism. Big corporations are the root of all the trouble. This CD episode is simply a direct example of the larger problem. You can see it plain as day. Corporations trying to turn children into consumers. Consumers who will live above their means. Consumers who will allow their children to be raised the same way.
Google is the shining example of real Adam Smith capitalism at work. These megacorps need to change or leave in order to save our society.
Do you agree, or do you think I'm taking it too far? I actually think I may have... oh well. I'll submit anyway, no point in putting all that typing to waste.
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
-1, Doesn't Know Jack About Home Schooling.
Before you run your mouth again, I'd suggest you find a local homeschooling group. Go to one of their meetings and watch the children interact with one another. For kicks, bring along some children of your own - borrow someone else's kids if you don't have any of your own. The point is to introduce strangers into this group of "socially inept children."
Then watch with amazement as the homeschooled children immediately and with no reservations make friends with these strange kids. Socially inept children don't walk up to other kids and say, "Hi, I'm Katie. What's your name? Do you want to go play on the slide with me?"
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, anecdotes mean absolutely nothing. The GP said kids who don't go to school have sucky social skills. You said "NUH UH!"
Now, can we actually hear proof either way?
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
And I'm sure you have cites to credible, empirical evidence for this statement, published in an accredited, peer-reviewed journal? No?
Imagine my surprise.
Max
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Informative)
This is often a myth... when you sit down and do the math, you find out that the second income is eaten up (and then some) by daycare, convenience foods and restaurants, and all the less obvious expenses that pile up when you're both working. Some of that's *so* "less obvious that even sitting down and doing the math doesn't tell you the real story.
We cut our household income in half when I quit to have a baby. And our standard of living hasn't changed (to our great surprise). Difference is, I have to cook and shop and all that instead of managing an AS/400 shop. Yeah, in a lot of ways *that's* a major sacrifice - at least I can still code at home on my *own* projects, so I don't feel at all like I'm completely falling behind on my career. Not everybody can do that. On the other hand, not every second income is 50% of the income, either, so a lot of wives (and the occasional husband) can stay home and actually *improve* the household bottom line.
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:4, Informative)
My hobby business made enough to buy a 29" TV (I think it was... ) a couple Christmases ago. And we do have high-speed DSL, with static IPs, for the Phoenyx, so that's an extra $40ish every month we don't have to spend but do.
And we regularly support nonprofits... tithing at our church, public broadcasting (TV/radio), food banks, etc.
On the other hand, I'm not dressing my preschooler at The Gap and Old Navy, so that makes a difference. He wears mostly secondhand stuff, in fact - makes more sense when they seldom wear clothes out. Heck, *I* wear the occasional secondhand find, though since I'm not working I don't need to overdress so my wardrobe's cheaper these days even new (another one of those hidden bennies).
It's all in where you want to spend it, I guess.
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
And while we're at it, on the subject of hip-hop...
Listening to hip-hop today (versus the hip-hop of the late 80s), I see a basic set of self-reinforcing memes. In no particular order: Education is acting "white" and is therefore a form of race treason. Race treason is an unpardonable sin; the purity of the race must be preserved. In the absence of education, crime is the only viable career choice. Respect is achieved through violence and intimidation. The purpose of life is to acquire money through force, fraud, or intimidation, and to spend the money purchasing whores. When whores are fucked, it's OK to shoot them. Kill all white people, because they're devils.
When I was a kid, we had a word for people who wanted to keep blacks and whites segregated, and to prevent blacks from succeeding in public school in order to keep them out of college, and to condemn them to lives of poverty, and on a dead-end track to murder or prison.
That word was "Klansman".
Today, that word is "Hip-Hop Recording Artist".
For double irony points, guess the race of the CEOs of the entertainment conglomerates that make the most money out of selling this memeset to blacks.
Big Pun in the public schools? If it weren't for the fact that Klan's too stupid to come up with anything this subtle, I'd call shenanigans.
Plague of Consumer Culture (Score:5, Insightful)
"Do you agree, or do you think I'm taking it too far?"
I agree fully on the Consumerism rant. I know people who need both their incomes to cover their mortgage. But then again that was a choice. I have plenty of friends and relatives who say they have no choice. But if asked they're forced to concede that no, nobody is forcing them at gunpoint to live in a 5-bedroom cul-de-sac lot. Or a 3-bedroom home in coastal California.
The problem is that Americans have a VERY skewed perspective of what is a need vs. what is a luxury. Then the "needed luxuries" lock people into a lifestyle that prevents one of them from being able to stay home and focus on raising their own kids for the first several critical years.
Also those "needed luxuries" lock them into jobs and careers they may hate. What a wasted life.
Great saying: "There are two ways to be rich - Make more, or want less."
And before someone starts pissing and moaning about how "I just don't know what it's like", I recently had to live in a 1-bedroom apartment for a few years with my kids because that's all we could afford. We've since rebounded, and yes that extreme was a challenge for us. But you know what? We're still here and we're a tight family. And we had fun. Parks, trails, community swimming pools, all kinds of essentially free stuff. How about flying a kite? Books from the library? And actually doing those things WITH them?
I also know a couple who job-share, so they both get to have a hand in raising their kids. They don't have a huge house, live in an upscale community, or own a big SUV hauling a rarely-used power boat, yet mysteriously they're very happy. And they have great kids. Go figure.
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Informative)
Nonsense. Both were considered proper spelling variations early on, and eventually "tidbit" became the accepted one.
c1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1885) III. 25 A tyd bit, i.e. a speciall morsell reserved to eat at last.
1701 Collier M. Aurel. (1726) 13 To be always loading the table, and eating of tid-bits.
As you can see from the above OED excerpts, the "tidbit" variation predates not only the american revolution, but much of the continents colonization as well.
Sell the CDs. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sell the CDs. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Informative)
I can't find Washington State's law, but using Colorado as an example, contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a class 4 felony with 2 to 6 years in jail and a fine of $2,000 to $500,000. (Colo. Rev. Stat. 12-47-901, 12-47-903, 18-1-106, 18-6-701)
How many CDs was that again?
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:RIAA Criminally At Fault? (Score:4, Insightful)
No. I think that there should be age limits for certain types of media. If a company willingly gives explicit content to children, they are at fault, just as they would be at fault for providing smokes to minors or booze to minors.
My point is that the RIAA pushes the fervent agenda that children should be responsible, and not download or upload copyright protected material, but in the same course, they offer free explicit music to the school system because they are too cheap to pay a fine. My thoughts are that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and the RIAA should be charged for corruption of innocents, or attempted corruption of innocents. (IANAL)
I've thought long and hard about this... (Score:5, Funny)
When exactly ... (Score:5, Funny)
Oops. I hope my parole officer doesn't read this post.
Re:When exactly ... (Score:5, Funny)
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
Boy, I hope ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I've thought long and hard about this... (Score:3, Insightful)
Let the school librarians pick through this garbage the RIAA crapped upon them. Whatever is left is boxed up, then placed on the chest of the president of the RIAA.
If you think that is harsh, then how about forcing the RIAA executives to peddle this 'largess' on the street corners? They have to sell 3/4 of the CD's to individual customers, and until they do the RIAA is shutdown, and the offices padlocked.
Surprising how? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Surprising how? (Score:4, Informative)
The article only covers a small part of the CDs, but according to WNEM, the settlement CDs are also being placed in all the public non-emergency vehicles in the state (which would include the personal cars of most of the state politicians, refuse collection trucks, mosquito-sprayers, and so on), being given to state employees, and so on. Those people who were to actually benifit from the settlement get a big old goose egg.
Re:Surprising how? (Score:5, Funny)
"CNN and the BBC is reporting that occupation troops, fuelled by a massive wave of enthusiasm and adrenaline, have retaken all cities that had been overrun by the Sadr militias. Citizens are rejoicing in the streets, shops are open for the first time in weeks, and a butterfly was seen landing on the head of a beautiful little girl in a wheelchair. When asked for a comment, General Tommy Franks said 'Never underestimate the power of the Wu-Tang Clan. And from now on, call me by my Shaolin name 'DefSquad'." When asked for clarification of his cryptic remarks, Franks shouted "36 Chambers be lookin' for ya, al-Zarqawi! Don't be a biatch!" Franks then left in a Humvee that had been freshly pimped by West Coast Customs."
Re:Surprising how? (Score:5, Funny)
The worst part.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The worst part.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Huh? What CDs? What inventory? The RIAA is just an industry trade association like the American Plastics Council [americanpl...ouncil.org], or the National Cattlemen's Beef Association [beef.org]. I don't think the plastics council nor the beef council have inventories of beef, plastic, or CDs.
When are people going to realize that the RIAA does not really exist? They are merely a bunch of lawyers that can't get a real job, so they create this thing called the RIAA and guess what? They get paid either way. For a lawsuit against them, for all of these bogus lawsuits against everybody, the lawyers (aka RIAA) will get paid win, lose, or draw.
If I get contaminated beef, who would I sue? Not the beef's trade association [beef.org], it would be the store or the beef plant that made the bad product.
If I get caught stealing something from the store, the store does not take me to court, they report it to the "proper authorities", and the store people only show up as a witness. I would doubt that there would ever be a trade organization involved.
If I get caught "stealing" music (yes, go on a tangent about this, I dare you), some group of lawyers (RIAA) come after me. Why can't they just report it to the "proper authorities"? I mean, on every movie I have watched at home the fucking FBI says that they will practically kill me if I do anything that violates the copyright on the video. How difficult is it just to turn over the people? That is what everyone else does.
This is a good thing (Score:5, Insightful)
They try to spin this component of the settlement as a heroic act, giving back to the community. Now they won't be able to do even that.
April Fool's? (Score:4, Insightful)
Just be glad.. (Score:5, Funny)
Public School (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
At least you *could* install Windows... (Score:5, Funny)
They might as well have sent them 10,000 AOL CDs.
Re:At least you *could* install Windows... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, you corrected yourself, so I guess I can't enter some kind of spelling flame here.
Re:At least you *could* install Windows... (Score:4, Informative)
They've done this to Philadelphia and Portland Oregon that I know of and probably many other places as well.
A truly sleazy and degenerate company.
Wow...what a bunch of scumbags... (Score:5, Interesting)
Disgusted. I'm going to go steal some music off of the internet now.
Hell yeah! (Score:5, Funny)
Be really honest with yourself: (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Be really honest with yourself: (Score:3, Insightful)
Mod Funny doesn't help Karma (Score:4, Informative)
Recycling ideas... (Score:3, Funny)
This might keep them busy for a while
The RIAA (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The RIAA (Score:4, Funny)
GOD really is all knowing.
RIAA similar to Microsoft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:RIAA similar to Microsoft? (Score:5, Funny)
i wonder if they duped... (Score:3, Informative)
They could have gone with plan B... (Score:3, Funny)
Easy Answer! (Score:3, Interesting)
Peace
Plenty of great ideas (Score:5, Funny)
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!
What to do? (Score:4, Funny)
Why do the RIAA get to choose the value? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Why do the RIAA get to choose the value? (Score:3, Insightful)
You're EXACTLY right here. All of the lawsuits being thrown around by the RIAA are predicated on the fact that they would have made a sale in the full amount of the CD (i.e. not on clearance at Wal-Mart) if the swapper hadn't downloaded the songs. Music does NOT equal legal tender, especially since I'm only paying for the right to listen to the song, not the right to own the CD.
What do you expect? (Score:3, Insightful)
Won't somone make them stop! (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Artist royalties? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Artist royalties? (Score:4, Interesting)
You've probably come across a nice technicality: the recording contracts with the artists probably state that certain forms of offloading unsold inventory don't result in royalties, and so this "dumping" is a nice break for them: not only do they avoid paying hard cash, but they avoid paying royalties (which they may have been liable for it they dumped off the stock at $1/each), and avoid wastage (i.e. if they dumped the stock into an incinerator for no gain, and an overall loss [taking into account costs of production]).
Very saavy move by the RIAA, which only goes to show how commercially slick and smart they are in business terms, as opposed to the schools who were have been completely shafted because they probably assumed they were going to get some useful music out of the deal.
Just like Nintendo, just like America (Score:3, Insightful)
See, their punishment was that they received more sales. Which is kind of what has happened here. The RIAA's punishment is to clear out old inventories as a part of a tax writeoff. The old "You've been bad, here's a dumptruck full of money" punishment.
That's the American way. Of course, if I stiff someone out of thousands of dollars (or even steal one dollar from thousands of people), it's off to ol' pound-you-in-the-ass prison for me. Maybe I just need to wear a tie, smile, and not pay taxes while I do it.
Re:Just like Nintendo, just like America (Score:3, Informative)
A Martha Stewart Halloween? (Score:3, Funny)
"Remember, moms, after you've returned from the English countryside with your hand picked wild pumpkins, only use platnium carving knives (available online from buymarthascrap.com) for maximum effect. Now, of course you're thriving hives out behind the pool house have led to a bumper crop of natural beeswax candles this year, so..."
There was a rumor that Stewart cut an album with Snoop Dogg or Dogg Pound or Mighty Dogg or one of those Dogg people. It's a concept album where Whatever Dogg plays Satan and Stewart is his little demoness bitch. It's called "Fook Dat Beyatch Upp!" and it's sung entirely in Aramaic with instrumental arrangements by Yani.
Maybe that one is in the collection. Or maybe it's something that floating into my brain last week when I hit my head.
one word : FRAUD (Score:4, Funny)
Precedent (Score:5, Insightful)
If my friends ever get an RIAA suit... (Score:3, Funny)
If my friends ever get an RIAA suit I'll just suggest they settle, then pay in "Dave Recites Computer Code" CDs valued at $1000 each. That's 150 per violation at the full price [com.com], or only 2 if they drop it down [com.com].
Happened here in South Carolina (Score:3, Interesting)
Not the RIAA. A group of labels != the RIAA (Score:3, Insightful)
Despite the
*grumbles* (Score:5, Insightful)
Dose this mean... (Score:5, Funny)
Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
* Why is a public school system involved with a settlement about monopoly pricing? That has nothing to do with consumers!
* Since when is donation at the discretion of the "guilty" party an acceptable remedy for price fixing, even if the donated items were in BillBoard's Top 10?
I really don't get it. I think the RIAA is the head of a cartel, but if the gov't was accepting this as a remedy, then they really deserved to get cow dung as a settlement. Just like with the tobacco company settlements, it was done "in the name of...", but it was mainly about the transfer of wealth to someone other than the [allegedly] represented parties. Well, this time it backfired. This is why it's better to indirectly set up the market to fix the issue instead of trying to do it directly. In other words, if you can't fix it, then get the hell out of the way. The RIAA is powerful because they've got a big, fat revenue stream from people who do buy legal copies of the music. That's the problem, and there isn't a way to fix it as long as people think a $20 CD is a good deal. And since the RIAA is so powerful in the US, they can bury a tax in the cost of CD-Rs. It'd be nice if the tax was listed separately on a CD-R package, like the phone company did with the USF tax.
Settlements suck (Score:4, Interesting)
The only people that profit are *gasp* the lawyers.
It could've be much worse (Score:4, Funny)
An idea from my childhood... (Score:5, Insightful)
As for what to do with all these worthless crappy CDs...
Remember the old "Star Trek disc guns" they sold back in the 70s? They need to make a few that shoot CDs hard and fast. Then line up the RIAA lawyers and executives and have a little target practice.
Of course, they were never very accurate. But they provided plenty of ammo.
what to do with 117,600 useless CDs... (Score:4, Funny)
Send them to AOL!
Legal Remedies (Score:4, Insightful)
But the parties are bound by the settlement they enter into. And is sounds from the article, that RIAA has breached its obligations under the settlement agreement (especially with the notched/promo CDs).
Somewhere in the settlement agreement there should be a clause specifying what happens if one party or the other does not live up to the terms of the settlement agreement.
It's time to dust off that clause, and head over to see your local friendly judge (preferably one with a child in the school system). With a little legal wrangling, the children of American regain their right to listen to really, really, crappy music.
This Settlement Crap Won't End... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Deal with the RIAA (Score:3, Insightful)