RIAA wholesale prices: coming soon?
p2pnet.net News:- Big 4 Organized Music cartel members Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG don’t want anyone to know exactly how much they’re ripping off, sorry, over-charging, sorry, charging corporate clients for wholesale downloads.
Back in June, 2005, “Wholesale prices vary with majors from anywhere from 65 to 80 cents,” Mashboxx boss Wayne Rosso told p2pnet.
Ray Beckerman, representing Marie Lindor in UMG v Lindor, says in a court document, “Plaintiffs would like the well known fact that the prevailing price is 70 cents per download to be confidential.”
He’s asking for precise pricing and volume information, but the Big 4′s RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), which is suing Lindor for alleged copyright infringement, won’t supply the data.
The RIAA is, “refusing to comply with Magistrate Judge Levy’s order directing them to turn over ‘all relevant documents’ concerning their wholesale prices for downloads unless Ms. Lindor’s attorneys agree to keep the prices confidential,” says Beckerman on Recording Industry vs The People.
He says he’s willing to keep the details of the contracts confidential, but nothing else, and asked judge Robert M. Levy to order the RIAA to produce the information.
New York judge J. Trager recently ruled that Lindor, a home health aide, can add to her defence her claim that $750-per-song damages demanded by the Big 4 isn’t only unconstitutional, it’s also far too much -1,071 times too much, to be exact – and the idea is being picked up by lawyers representing other sue ‘em all victims.
The Big 4 are also after her son, Woody Raymond, and are currently demanding access to, “[a]ny and all computers and/or music listening devices including iPods and MP3 players in your [Raymond's] possession, custody or control”.
Meanwhile, an order from Levy compelling the RIAA to make public its wholesale fees will unleash a storm in the narrow, and as yet virtually non-existent, corporate music world. But that’s not all that’s facing the Big 4.
On January 26 oral evidence will be presented in Elektra v Barker brought by the Big 4 record labels against Tenise Barker.
They’ll try to convince judge Kenneth M. Karas that if a shared files folder holds legally acquired copyrighted song files, and it’s been online for even a single moment, the owner is automatically an illegal distributor.
However, as we posted on Monday, Karas is someone who’s familiar with the kind of technology he’ll be hearing about, “and someone who’s likely to ask his own informed questions, at length and in depth. And the grilling could be bad for the RIAA whose ‘expert testimony’ is already being held up to close and unwelcome scrutiny in other cases.”
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See:
65 to 80 cents – Mashboxx wraps Sony BMG, June 29, 2005
Marie Lindor – RIAA victim wants case dismissed, October 25, 2006
Recording Industry vs The People – RIAA Wants Wholesale Pricing Information to be Confidential in UMG v. Lindor, January 2, 2007
1,071 times too much – Trouble looms for RIAA, November 10, 2006
sue ‘em all victims – Us, Them, p2p and file sharing, December 9, 2006
virtually non-existent – ‘DRM will begin to crumble’, January 2, 2007
demanding access – RIAA attacks Marie Lindor’s son, November 22, 2006
grilling could be bad – End of the RIAA terror reign?, January 1, 2007
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