Music companies settle in price-fixing case

Hello guest,
default
To benefit from all extra features you need to log in or sign up.
01 Oct 02 11:39 by dansmug in category Uncategorized To news archive


spacegrass, jab1981, Sgams, d day, Mr. Belvedere and TheTarbaby used our newssubmit to tell us that the five largest music companies have to pay a very big fine to settle a CD price-fixing case. During 5 years they kept prices of CDs too high by signing contracts with resellers. Of course they didn’t admit they were wrong, what did you expect?

In August 2000, most U.S. states joined in a lawsuit alleging that an industry practice called “minimum advertised pricing” (MAP) artificially inflated the price of CDs between 1995 and 2000, violating federal and state antitrust laws. Under MAP, the labels subsidized advertising for retailers that agreed not to sell CDs below a certain price.

The five record labels ‘” Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music Group, Sony’s Sony Music, Bertelsmann’s BMG Music Group, Warner Music Group, a division of AOL Time Warner, and EMI Group ‘” and the three retailers, Musicland Stores, Trans World Entertainment and Tower Records, agreed to stop using MAP policies as part of the settlement.

The companies, which did not admit any wrongdoing, will pay $67.4 million in cash to compensate consumers who overpaid for CDs between 1995 and 2000. The companies also agreed to distribute $75.7 million worth of CDs to public entities and nonprofit organizations throughout the country.

Beware if you illegally download music, for you will burn in hell. That is what the music companies keep telling us. But keeping prices artificially high isn’t a crime? Read the entire article here.

Source: Reuters

15 Comments

dj_newtricial
Posts: 33
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 12:53
Their ego must be broken, greedy bastards. I only want to have music, not all like cds. I'll not buy a cd. Sometimes i buy a cd from an artist to test the copy protection :4 I'll wait what the future brings... By music industry the prices will never fall!
temo
Posts: 77
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 13:49
I hadn't realized the free market was "artificial". What a laughable notion. Anways, if you don't want to buy music then don't buy it, just steal it.
guest
Posts: 15288
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 14:07
"The companies, which did not admit any wrongdoing, will pay $67.4 million in cash to compensate consumers..." Oh, really? How much of that will _I_ see for the money I've wasted on CD's in the past? I doubt ONE CENT. Ah well, they're getting what the deserve. Screw 'em.
whitetie
Posts: 46
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 15:17
The consumer pays for out-of-court settlements, court costs, and fines. Expect the them to pad future prices upwards. Glad I don't purhcase CDs but get my music othewise! RIAA is a monopoly and not a free-market entity! Let those swine roast in their own juices!
oratonastick
Posts: 41
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 15:47
Quote:
The companies also agreed to distribute $75.7 million worth of CDs to public entities and nonprofit organizations throughout the country.
So now every church gets two free Danzig cd's and every highschool three cd's by Marilyn Manson! :4
Travis
Posts: 42
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 16:05
Yea so where do I type in my address to collect my part of that "$67.4 million in cash to compensate consumers" since I have boughten 200 CDs in that time period.
jab1981
Posts: 187
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 16:32
Probably the same place you got your mail-order education. Boughten isn't a word... Purhaps purchased? Seriously, I'm in the same boat. Over 200 CD's added in my collection over the last 5 years. I guess we are seeing the money as it's awarded to states and to the public. And it's a step in the right direction as now the courts are more or less agreeing with the money stealing the RIAA has been doing with their monopoly for years.
AlienZombie
Posts: 31
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 18:22
I guarantee all that money goes to the lawyers, not t he consumers :r
Sherrif
Posts: 851
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 19:05
I guess we all agree that these companies committed crimminal acts and have crimminals working for them or acting on their behalf, so why should we or any court of law believe what they say now..... (ahem...not that we ever did)...........:7
guest
Posts: 15288
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 19:12
For &quot;jab1981&quot;: were you born in 1981? If so, I would assume you've at least graduated from high school, if not college by now. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary states the following: &quot;One entry found for boughten. Main Entry: bought&middot;en Pronunciation: 'bo-t&n Function: adjective Etymology: bought + -en (as in forgotten) Date: 1793 chiefly dialect : BOUGHT <the only boughten carpet in the region -- H. W. Thompson>&quot; Although the original poster used it in the wrong form (&quot;boughten&quot; is an adjective, not a verb&quot, it most certainly is a word! Those who are overly critical are most likely to have the most flaws.
jab1981
Posts: 187
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 19:30
I'll be damned, there is. I learned something new. However I disagree that I was overly critical, I made reference to the fact that it wasn't entirely serious... just poking sport. Simply it is incorrect to say I've boughten. I jumped the gun a tad with my mild disgust for the lack of sentence structure, and for that I apologize. However I do commend you for taking the time out to research this. Odd that you'd need a dictionary Your post sounds a tad condescending. And by the way, I am a High School (age 16) and College Graduate (age 20). However I didn't specialize in outdated and uncommon uses of English language. I do however take notice when the English language is incorrectly used so blatantly. Not that I am with out flaws, simply stated something of that nature should be common knowledge. You need little education and no degrees for that. Such faith you have in a failed educational system. Good that you're optimisitic my friend.
ZIB
Posts: 89
Posted on: 01 Oct 02 20:59
Ah poor babies have to pay out their tight a$$e$. I think I will help them out. I'm going to go home tonight & download 100 or so songs off of KaZaa.
guest
Posts: 15288
Posted on: 02 Oct 02 00:07
I just laugh at all you suckers that pay money for CDs.
Ytsejamer1
Posts: 22
Posted on: 02 Oct 02 17:08
So how the hell does one prove they've purchased all these cd's between 1995 and 2000. I'm in the same boat as most of you and have purchased a good many cd's from a bunch of my favorite artists...are they going to cut me a check for $2 or $3 each per cd?!? I'd be interested to see how these consumers can recoup some of this money. I certainly didn't save my receipts for cds purchased years ago.
guest
Posts: 15288
Posted on: 04 Oct 02 07:55
What a stupid ruling. Instead of imposing a fine, they should force all the companies to reduce the cost of CD's by a percentage. That way we would ALL see a benefit. As it is we won't see sh*t.

Post a comment

Most popular headlines

Repeat UK file sharers to be banned (2)

  • Wednesday 28 October 22:56 by Randomus
  • Piracy

Internet users in the United Kingdom accused of illegally sharing copyrighted music and movie files will face stiff penalties, starting with warning letters that will lead to bandwidth restrictions, according to media reports from the UK.

Nintendo to launch larger screen DSi

  • Wednesday 28 October 01:35 by Randomus
  • Game Consoles

Nintendo is expected to launch a new DSi hand-held gaming device in Japan that has a larger screen, as the company tries to increase sales in the hand-held gaming market it once dominated.

T-Mobile offers no contract phone plan

  • Tuesday 27 October 22:46 by Randomus
  • Mobile Phones

In an effort to better compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, T-Mobile has introduced new no-contract wireless plans that include unlimited voice services.

2 new Roku boxes launched for Netflix & more

Roku's streaming set-top set-top boxes now come in three flavors, adding new features as well.

See all headlines

Active Commenters