RIAA settles with 12 yr old girl for 2000USD

[b0b0b0b]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=495&e=2&u=/ap/downloading_music

I can't imagine being the single parent of a 12 yr old having to cough up 2 G's.

This was so much egg on the RIAA's face that the settlement for this took only a few days. It seemed to me that everyone in the American media was bashing the RIAA-- from Jimmy Kimmel (late night talk show) to Good Morning America. I guess sometimes you're glad the New York Post is around, however sensational they may be.

Strangely enough, Howard Stern this morning backed the RIAA, rehashing the same tired arguments we've heard a million times.

I think Johnny Rotten said it the best (and I think you can imagine what he said).

[wmansir]

I'm not surprised Stern backs the RIAA. His production company routinely sends out Cease and Desist letters to people who post his show online or stream them.

It's too bad they settled, though I can understand the mother's position. She probably could have gotten them to settle for less, but it would have cost her more in legal fees then she would have saved. The thing is I'm sure this is actually very common. A large percentage of the defendants are probably the parents of online traders, but their name is on the internet bill. The problem for the RIAA here was that they filed against the kid, and that was really bad PR.

[SeeMoreDigital]

$2000 dollars!

How many ligit CD's does that buy for a 12 year old?

Over here in the UK, CD's from stores like Virgin cost around £14.00. However, most 'chart' CD's can now be bought for around £10.00 from large supermarkets.

But please spare a thought for us. It's taken 20 years for us get such low prices. Which, in my opinion, are still not low enough!

The UK record companies take more money out of 'the pie' than just about any other record companies around the world. Which may have been fine at the birth of CD (admitedly they were taking a huge gamble on the 'new format' being sucessful) but those days have long gone and their share has never been re-adjusted!

Cheers

[waldok]

Damn ! I wonder when they will start suing everyone for being able to listen a to a copyrighted song, remember it and sing it in the shower. After all, brain is also a storage device isn't it ?
But maybe this won't happen since obviously these RIAA people (and their faithful dog Stern) don't know what a brain is.

Waldok :cool:

[Doobie]

Originally posted by wmansir
I'm not surprised Stern backs the RIAA. His production company routinely sends out Cease and Desist letters to people who post his show online or stream them.

Stern is a Politically Correct coward. Through my life, in school, everyone once and a while I see some kids throw together an alternative newspaper. There's liberal use of the F-word and they pride themselves in rejecting society's standard. Woohoo.

Stern is just a potty mouth. Nothing Politically Incorrect or brave about that. Now, express some "dangerous" ideas then you're doing something.

Now, take Mel Gipson, he is showing us an example of what Politically Incorrect is, although he is already backing down.

[b0b0b0b]

On the topic of CD prices, everyone's heard that Universal Music Group is reducing prices by approximately 30%, right?

I heard the funniest thing on the radio. The DJ was reading a news item that implied that Universal Music Group was doing this out of desperation. What station was it? It was a ClearChannel station.

Imagine if ClearChannel opened gas stations: we would be drilling the Hell out of Alaska by now and if anyone questioned the price of gas, the immediate response would be, think of the poor souls in the middle east whose toil brings us this precious black gold.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Staying on the subject of pricing for a little while longer. I think we would all agree that CD sales would grow if the 'per unit cost' was lower, especially when you consider how much the things cost to manufacture.

That said, I am puzzled as to why VHS tapes can be anything upto 40% cheaper than the equivalent DVD (well in the UK anyway). This seems ridiculous to me, as they are cheaper to make, cheaper to package and cheaper to distribute - you can get approx 60% more in a box than the equivalent VHS tape!

I wonder if other countries have this same price differential. Or is it yet another case of 'rip off UK'!

[ammer]

have they no shame, attacking a poor defenseless little girl. shame on them. oh well, guess no dessert for a month and she'll have to go into a life of crime to get that little pony she wanted, now that her funds have all but depleted.(selling dope on street corners) i guess now she can tell all her friends that the big bad riaa really does punish violators of infringement on their copyright ip. they propably would take all her toys if they could. those heartless bastards. wtg riaa, might as well take her lunch money too, oh, she doesn't have any anymore. boo!!!

[b0b0b0b]

I remember a long long time ago if I liked a song, I could spend $1 or $2 to get it a cassette single at the music store, and there would be a B side that might convince me to buy the album.

As far as analog vs digital pricing in the USA today, it seems to me that people releasing the analog version of something (vinyl, vhs, cassette tape) feel like they can price it pretty high relative to the digital version. For example, the Eminem album on cassette at amazon is 12.33 when they sell the cd for 14.99.

The idea of pricing something according to what the market will bear reminds me of the man-made diamonds that have been in the news recently. It costs a minute fraction of the money to obtain a man-made diamond of comparable size to a traditional diamond, but (I think) they are going to be priced around %75 of the usual diamond cost. Another example is that many auto manufacturers sell the identical car cheaper in Canada than in the US.

[SeeMoreDigital]

For Gods sake don't start talking about the prices of cars!

As once agian. 'We the people' who live in the UK pay the highest car prices of just about any country!

The only reason why more of us don't emigrate. Is down to the high prices we have to pay for travelling abroad!!!!!

We have airport tax and everything now!

Cheers

[Animaniac]

So the list now includes,
a 12 year old girl
a 78 year old man
and a Yale prof

They're the FACE OF EVIL!!! EVIL I SAY!!!

... are they doing this on purpose???

[SeeMoreDigital]

What!!!!

No catholic priests, chior boys or nuns yet!

Has the world gone mad!

[echooff]

Everyone is missing something in the pricing. Taxes. Just as an example gasoline in Florida cost .20 more a gallon than in New Jersey and we have to pump our own. In new Jersey you are not allowed to pump your own gas. The difference in pricing is all tax. I lived in Europe for 5 years and the same thing goes there. The politicians would tax you for your eye teeth if they could figure out how. Check out how much the hidden taxes are on cd's and you might be surprised.

[DAvenger]

Considering the $350 average income and price of $17 per CD here in Slovakia one would say that filesharing must be very popular here. Funny thing is that Internet is even more expensive than buying CDs :D

Oh well :rolleyes:

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi echooff,

Unfortunately when it comes to CD prices in the UK, tax is only part of the issue. The highest earners are the record companies.

They make far more money in the UK per CD sale than in any other EU country or State side.

As I said before it was originally this way because the record companies did'nt think CD would take off. You may not be aware but when CD was launched EMI waited for over a year before it got in on the act. In much the same way Fox waited to see if DVD would pan out!

Great is'nt it. My first CD player way back in 1983 cost £550.00 and there were only 100 no CD's at £12.00 a pop to choose from. 20 years later you can buy a CD player for £25.00 and the disc's cost between £10.00 and £14.00....

Somthin' just don't add up somehow!

WE WANT CHEAPER DISC'S, WE WANT CHEAPER DISC'S!

Cheers

[ppera2]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
...That said, I am puzzled as to why VHS tapes can be anything upto 40% cheaper than the equivalent DVD (well in the UK anyway). This seems ridiculous to me, as they are cheaper to make, cheaper to package and cheaper to distribute - you can get approx 60% more in a box than the equivalent VHS tape! I wonder if other countries have this same price differential. Or is it yet another case of 'rip off UK'!

In my country and some neightbours relation is often that DVD costs 2x more than equ. movie VHS. I'm pretty sure that everywhere DVD costs much more. Piblishers give reason for it in higher preparation costs - making menus, add-ons etc. This is in fact incorrest, many DVD has no extras, and menus looks like they are made in half hour.

I think that production cost has not much relation with price. They calculate price by complete different calculations. If you think that prices in UK are too high, just imagine how expensive is average DVD for 25 Euro for Eastern European worker.
Today, one man said that he sees nothing from DVD bumm. Of course, here it's still luxus.

[b0b0b0b]

Time is a good equalizer. If you don't have to have it right away, eventually it will turn up on half.com (or addall.com) at a low price.

Going back to my eminem example, you can find the cd for $3.50 (plus shipping) used.

The eminem show on buymusic.com is 9.99.

If you assume that shipping on the used cd is $3.50, then buying a degraded version (probably even with digital rights management in it), still costs you 3 dollars more. That's insane in the membrane.

[t3ch]

I was expecting more of a rousing in this thread to be honest, I'm surprised to see how everyone agrees. I didn't see this being against forum rules, but here's (http://www.nerdtreehouse.com/php/html/viewtopic.php?topic=15231&forum=2&start=0) a link to the same topic on a forum I visit regularly; it expands on a few ideas being said in this thread (and saves me the trouble of rephrasing everything :D )