Record companies are suing CD WOW and Play
 

I read in The Sun today that record companies in Britain are suing these two companies because of how cheap they sell there CD'S.
This is really irritatiing because it's the cheapest place to get any CD and shops like HMV and Virgin are sometimes too expensive. If they are made to put the prices up then that would get more people downloading music, which would piss them off even more.

what? :| how can they be sued for selling CDs cheaply?

Because they import there albums from cheaper countries and the record companies are getting pissed off because they get less money from it.

What they are doing is not illegal

I know but they want them to put their prices up. Which is gay.

Unless a new law is passed, they can't do anything about it.

Wow. I've never heard of such a blatant price-fixing deal.

Stop reading the Sun, they've distorted it, as usual.

The real motive behind the lawsuits are obviously the low prices, but that's not the position they're taking legally. It's apparently something relating to copyright, but they're not going to be stupid enough to walk into court and argue they should sell stuff more expensively.

Since bottom line is, the CD distributors have been paid and the artists have received their royalties, so there's nowhere to go legally on that front.

Got any lit on it?

I'm just wondering, because I'm having trouble seeing ANY copyright grounds on which they even COULD be arguing.

I'll look, only saw it on the news last night...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ic/3380307.stm

Online retailer Amazon is being investigated by the British record industry in a probe into cheap CDs.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is looking into whether it breaks UK laws by selling cut-price music.

The BPI said it was questioning as routine whether Amazon was selling CDs obtained outside the European Economic Area, contravening UK law.

It is already suing retailers CD-Wow and Play.com for allegedly sourcing music from cheap overseas suppliers.

Amazon is one of the most successful online retailers, intially known for selling books it has diversified into other markets including music, with the average price of a CD under £10 and some as low as £5.

A BPI spokesman said: "This is a standard routine. We look at many websites to determine if the product is legitimate.

"If we find a net retailer is importing music from outside Europe, then they are infringing copyright law."

Many web retailers have built up their businesses by offering CDs considerably cheaper than high street shops.

But there is a concern that products are being brought in from areas such as Asia, therefore bypassing import laws.

Online sales have helped revive a struggling music econony with increased album sales, although the market saw a 7% drop in profits last year.
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I had no idea Amazon were involved in this as well. And I know for a fact that Play gets its CDs from the States. They're in trouble. :(

Yeah, the RIAA and other big money retailers decided in the 80s that they didn't want to risk cheaper imports. They pushed for international tarriffs that prevented the CDs from shipping in bulk, thus jacking the prices from ridiculously cheaper to insanely more expensive. This includes the British recording companies.

But still...Copyright?

Amazon's famous for taking a hit on their music costs anyways. They udnercut competitors by taking a slight hit on music to hook other people on their wares.

I'm honestly not sure... I suppose it could relate to the fact that the copyright holders in the UK could be different to the holders from wherever it was imported from, but I'm really not sure.

Mmmmm...I suppose it could be.

However, that would make ALL imports problematic, and they're not going after importers, just the ones who are importing at prices that undercut their own desires.

Play might be ok

I'm pretty sure they import from America into Belgium and then source from there...and the company that they use to import from the States is registered independantly as well. If that's the case they should be good.

F</>ucking music industry :mad:

I think your right about Play importing from America

You know, it's amazing. Cheaper records benefit the majority of people. Laws are established, however, against the benefit and greater good of that majority, benefitting a tiny minority: The Record execs.

If the cheaper alternatives were allowed, the Recording Industries will be forced to compete with cheaper sources. That would cut into their profits.

And we complain that special interests run our governments. :roll:

I am honestly unsure if a similar statute exists in Europe - I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

If the companies get done by this I hope they take it to the European courts and get it overturned.

If the cunts of record companies lowered the prices, people would buy the cd's simple as, what fool is gonna pay 17 quid for a cd in the shops when he can get it for under a tenner on the net?

Far as I know, the 30-something countries that did this in the 80s included the UK and a couple other European countries at the least.

Granted, it may have changed since the 80s, I don't know, but the allegations made by the British music industry would seem to back up that there IS some sort of statute (at least according to Destroyer's news link), or they wouldn't be spending money going to court over it (most likely...You can sue for anything, but if you're complaining about record sale losses, the worst way to ensure more profits is to sue in an unwinnable lawsuit, resulting in further profit losses).

The shops need to play ball as well, since it's not the record companies that force HMV to sell CDs for £15.99 when smaller shops manage to sell them for a few pounds less...

Big shops don't want to play ball. That's why local shops often manage to actually undercut, say, FYE or Strawberries. UD example, but still.

This is true, but such is the state of this country's legal system right now (at least this is how it appears to me) that anything that isn't set in stone by the european governing bodies applying to the EU as a whole, rather than individual member states, can be overturned by them. I'm pretty sure this might fall under some sort of restriction of trade law somewhere...maybe :-\

Yeah. The EU has kinda left me clueless. Great theory, but a biut of a mess sometimes.

Kinda like the USA.

Yeah, there's various EU cases relating to interactions between intellectual property rights (such as copyright) and the law relating to free movement of goods... I really need to do some digging on this.

Just thought I'd bump this, because CD-WOW have settled out of court, and will not have to place £2 extra on all CD's, at least this is what I read. If you go to www.e-festivals.co.uk its on the front page

<center><font color="#0080FF" face="Arial" Size="2">play.com have took a shit load of CDs off the UK site

also, you can't use solo cards and stuff on playusa.com anymore

:mad:</font>

Fu</>cking bastards :mad:

Fortunatly, I can just con my folks to using there card, and giving them the cash for stuff off the US site, but half the stuff I want isn't on Play anymore. This is bullsh</>it

<center><font color="#0080FF" face="Arial" Size="2">i think the other cds are still on playusa</font>

Wouldn't it make sense to come up with some way of distributing them cheaper, like an all year closing down sale?

All the CD's I ever bough from Play.com, come from Canada.

Canadian CDs are oft cheap, even on import.

Not every CD Play stock(ed) came from Canada though.

See for example my Cradle of Filth CD avec German titling on the CD (but English booklet :wtf: )

*has Cds in like 15 different languages*

'Course, I payed MORe generally, to import these rare titles...

Worst I've had is a few albums with a German sticker on the front...