RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

July 19, 2010

Last week The Recording Industry vs. The People blog uncovered financial documents that showed the RIAA - the trade group that represents the music industry - spent around $16 million in legal fees on a handful of cases in 2008 to recover $391,000 USD from P2P lawsuits. Ouch.

This week the Denver Westword blog highlights the industry's proclivity for wasting cash with ten tongue-in-cheek (mostly) examples. Among their examples are Sony-BMG's DRM on the Neil Diamond album "12 Songs," and Jive Records' $1.5 million investment in hip-hop artist Papoose who was supposed to give them enough tracks for an album (it never happened).

Want more? How about these: MCA Records' $2 million investment in the late 80's glam rockers Pretty Boy Floyd, Def Jam's $3 million dollar two-record deal with NAS that fell flat, the debacle that is the Beach Boys' "Smile" album, Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Reprise Records' horror at how bad it was, and the $13 million spent on Guns n' Roses' "Chinese Democracy."

Fun stuff.

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Comments

Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by ZippyDSMlee on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 15:53.

Nothing like spend millions to gain thousands in profits...... I think the media mafia is a part of government....its as wasteful and inept.....

I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/

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Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by airford on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 21:37.

To be fair, this is actually common for big companies to do because the investment is for the rulings, not the money. Ten years from now the RIAA (or their successor) can simply point back to these cases as proof and scare most poeple into paying outside court. What bothers me is that the RIAA should have already got to this point some time ago.

With that said, the RIAA is a joke.

Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by Thad on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 10:14.

If it were about rulings, they wouldn't push so aggressively for settlements.

As Murdats noted, this has been more akin to extortion than pursuing legal precedent. Accept this unfair but comparatively small fine, or we'll sue you for a grossly disproportionate amount.

Now that a couple of people HAVE said "Go ahead and sue me," we're starting to see a different pattern emerge: they get convicted, but judges throw out the maximum fine. (Frankly even the reduced fines are excessive, but they're still not exactly a big win for the RIAA.)

And there are still appeals to be seen. This isn't over, but it's already very clear that this has not been a winning strategy for the RIAA.

Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 01:59.

The RIAA, Really self-Important Assholes Association

Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by Murdats on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 22:21.

got to what point? the point where they can freely extort money from people with 0 repurcussions?

they did get to that point ages ago.

or the point where they can then sue people, with no evidence, if they refuse to pay up?

yeah they have had a bit of a hard time with that one but they are getting there.

Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by jedidethfreak on Wed, 07/21/2010 - 07:50.

Anyone can sue anyone with no evidence. That comment doesn't mean anything.

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With the first link, the chain is forged.

--- With the first link, the chain is forged.

Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by Thad on Wed, 07/21/2010 - 12:37.

Anyone can sue with no evidence, yes. But only somebody with a tremendous amount of resources at its disposal can threaten thousands of people with suits and pressure them to settle.

Re: RIAA: Great Moments in Spending

Submitted by Thad on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 18:23.

In before irrelevant "FILESHARING IS STEALING AND STEALING IS WRONG" post.

Poll

Shout box

DorthLous: Anybody tried Hiversaire? Thoughts?05/22/2013 - 5:48pm

E. Zachary Knight: New Humble Bundle Weekly Sale. Alan Wake: https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly No Linux or Mac support. :(05/22/2013 - 1:46pm

E. Zachary Knight: Microsoft talks about the lack of backward compatability. You're backwards. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192801/If_youre_backwards_compatible_youre_really_backwards.php05/22/2013 - 1:39pm

E. Zachary Knight: That is absolutely nuts there. As bad an experience XBox Indie Games was, the problems weren't with the self published side of things. Forcing a publisher onto independent studios is not going to help.05/22/2013 - 10:43am

MaskedPixelante: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-05-22-microsoft-wont-let-indies-self-publish-on-xbox-one And the hits just keep on coming.05/22/2013 - 9:20am

E. Zachary Knight: AE: You beat me to it. That's what I get for taking the night off.05/22/2013 - 7:40am

E. Zachary Knight: To continue the confused and convoluted messaging system present in EA, They are making Wii U games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192753/EA_is_working_on_Wii_U_games_after_all.php05/22/2013 - 7:33am

Imautobot: I gotta admit, I seriously believed Microsoft was going to "Bring It" with this new console. But they failed, and I think that failure might be Epic.05/22/2013 - 7:27am

Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm

Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm

Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm

Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm

Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm

james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm

Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm

Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm

PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm

Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm

All shouts

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