Let X = the number of Music Products purchased at full price between 1995 and 2000—
It’s not that I don’t think class-action lawsuits are a good idea—flawed though they are, they’re frequently the only way a wronged class of individuals can take on the armies of lawyers that cool their heels in the halls of large corporations. (While we’re all up in arms over judicial nominations and Total Information Awareness and the ghosts of the Ford Administration come to exact their due, we should also keep an eye out for what the RNC has planned by way of “curbing civil liability”—a somewhat more honest term than “tort reform,” methinks. [“You should not have a local judge in a county issuing a ruling that affects hundreds of millions of dollars in business across the country,” says the chief lobbyist for our US Chamber of Commerce. —Why on earth not?])
No, this rubs me the wrong way because these guys are getting away with year after year after year of price-gouging (going back much further than the stipulated date of 1995) by paying out no more than $20 to each and every qualified member of the class—and all without admitting any wrong-doing whatsoever. (As for not engaging in this practice in the future—why are you laughing? What’s so funny?)
“Continued litigation would only consume millions of dollars of company resources at a time when (Universal’s) executive energy and business focus are better spent providing consumers with compelling music,” said multinational corporation Universal regarding the settlement. Yeah, whatever. Fill out a claim form if you like, but if you get your check, I’d suggest blowing your $20, or your $10, or your $5 on a symbolic gesture. Get some music from Janis Ian, maybe. Or go see some local kids, as yet unsigned. Or hell—buy a book.
—via MetaFilter.
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