A Solid Call 2.0

The Big Payback: RIAA Scams Schools.  : When U.S. District Court settled their anti-trust case with the RIAA last year, part of the deal was that states would get a big supply of RIAA product for schools, libraries etc -- basically the labels admitted to doing illegal things, but got away with paying off some of their fines with store credit.

The state of Washington just got a shipment 115,241 music CDs supposedly worth $1.5 million dollars. Schools are getting butchered in this era of corporate welfare, so it's hearteneing to see most of the free CDs distributed in Washington went to public schools. It was really top of the line retail too, as seen in this Seattle PI article.

I mean, I'm really happy that the schools got 387 Big Pun CDs, 310 copies of Will Smith's Willenium and enough Barry White to keep the kids happy for hours -- 356 copies of Staying Power. This represented real value against what the RIAA owed to the states, sure.

So, the schools got a bunch of cut-outs that the labels couldn't even move at a flea market. I can only imagine the Enron-like glee as the record label management authorized this scam. "Enjoy your 1,355 Whitney Houston singles from 1991, little Johnny. Count those at full retail price, please." Oh and as a bonus, a lot of them were promos -- not able to be resold. If I ever get sued by the RIAA, I'll just pay them back with Goodie Mob CD singles.

But, the lawyers on both sides got paid -- so good job, everyone. What a scummy way to do business.