The RIAA owes you $20

Last Updated on September 30, 2010 by Dave Farquhar

In case you haven’t read about this elsewhere, be sure to file your claim if you purchased a CD, tape, or record at retail between the dates of Jan. 1, 1995 and Dec. 22, 2000.
This is the RIAA’s slap-on-the-wrist punishment for price fixing. If too many people file, the money goes to charity. And I’m curious what this will do to CD prices.

On an only semi-related topic, the RIAA asks for the last four digits of your social security number. I don’t know why they need that. You can find social security numbers of several of your favorite dead celebrities, including Richard Nixon, Dr. Seuss, and Kurt Cobain, here. (If the link goes dead, plug the URL into the Wayback Machine.

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4 thoughts on “The RIAA owes you $20

  • January 9, 2003 at 9:03 pm
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    Dave,

    Fix your “E-mail Dave” link on the side. 😉 Or drop me a mail if you want. Nice place you have here, I like it. I’d like to possibly catch up with you, see how you are, stuff like that.

    You should recognize my last name. Maybe not. =) Somehow I think your brain works better than that though.

    Thanks. Hope to hear from you.

    –Knight Hawk, Talonius, Trystan, Joker, Silicon Jesus
    aka Brian

  • January 9, 2003 at 11:33 pm
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    I fixed the link. Sort of. Good enough for now. I was kind of wondering why I hadn’t gotten mail for a while regarding the site…

    It’s definitely not the first time you’ve found one of my bugs, THOUGH IT IS THE FIRST TIME IN ABOUT EIGHT YEARS!

    (For those of you who have no clue what’s going on right now, Brian and I were coauthors on my very first paid writing credit–well, it was his first paid writing credit too–back in 1991, and I don’t think I’ve seen him since 1995.)

  • January 10, 2003 at 12:59 am
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    NB: the terms of the settlement are that if more than about 13.5 million people file claims, all the money will go to “not- for- profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs,” distributed across the entire US. In other words, public libraries, public radio stations, symphony halls, and the like.

    Actually, I think it would be a good thing if all the money went to charity — a few million people getting checks for 20 dollars each would do a lot less good, and repair a lot less of the harm the record industy has done, than several hundred libraries, orchestras, and public radio stations across the US getting a hundred thousand dollars each.

    Twenty dollars won’t even buy a new book or CD nowadays… but if the money goes to libraries and music schools and orchestras, everyone in America will reap the benefits for decades to come.

    Which is why I’m going to urge all the people I know to sign a claim form — to try to push the number of claims over that limit, so the money goes where it will do the most good.

  • January 10, 2003 at 10:18 am
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    Brian showing his face here is a sure sign of the Apocalypse. 🙂 Are we all going to have to start using our old BBS handles again? Wait, Dave *is* using his old BBS handle…

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