AfterDawn: Tech news

RIAA paid lawyers over $16 million in 2008, recovered less than $1 million from suits

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Jul 2010 1:50 User comments (14)

RIAA paid lawyers over $16 million in 2008, recovered less than $1 million from suits Recording Industry vs The People has posted today that the RIAA lost an incredible amount of money on attorney's fees in 2008, while recovering practically nothing from its lawsuits.
The trade group paid firm Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901, firm Jenner & Block over $7,000,000 and Cravath Swain & Moore about $1.25 million for 2008. Each was in charge of pursuing copyright infringement claims.

Apparently 2008 was a bad year for the RIAA though as they only recovered $391,000 from their suits.

The average settlement for copyright infringement cases is $3500 meaning the RIAA only settled with just over 110 people.

On the other hand, 2008 was an improvement on 2007, when the RIAA spent $21 million on legal fees and an additional $3.5 million to pay watchdog MediaSentry. The group only recovered $516,000 in 2007.

You can view the IRS return here: RIAA recover only $391,000.

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14 user comments

114.7.2010 13:58

lol those dunderheads

214.7.2010 14:30

How the hell are they still allowed to continue wasting money like this? After 2 years figures this bad, you'd think the gov't or the music industry would just tell em to stop.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 14 Jul 2010 @ 2:30

314.7.2010 15:41

personally, i think they deserves it

414.7.2010 15:57

Must be a master mind behind that plan . Good work RIAA .

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 14 Jul 2010 @ 3:58

514.7.2010 16:58

They lose more money on lawsuits or downloads, the company needs to open their eyes and see the truth.

614.7.2010 18:58

You're all not looking at the broader picture. By suing a few people it causes fear. Fear keeps some from pirating, and puts them back in stores buying the media legitimately. Not that I am condoning massive lawsuits against your customers, just that they are most likely recouping the legal costs through increased purchases. In case you think "That will stop nobody" well smart guy, there are tons of Joe Shmoe's out there that don't want to be hassled with a lawsuit so they buy. I know a ton, in fact I've suggested to many to go legit just because I knew they were too dumb to not get caught (we're talking LimeWire users here). So the article can be a bit misleading as to if they are losing money or not. It isn't that simple.

714.7.2010 23:29

At the same time, they are alienating the public and even their own artists. I wonder how much the record companies loose when someone like Trent Reznor of NIN or Billy Corben of the Smashing Pumpkins says, "F**K you record company, I'm starting my own label, giving my music away for free, and making a huge fortune on the concerts!" Performers do make money on CD sales, but it is a tiny percentage, even for a huge performer...most of their money is from concert sales, and if they could get more people to the concerts, they usually wouldn't mind loosing all CD sales.

The RIAA is a symptom of a greater problem...the record companies. There was a time when national and even international record companies were vital for the distribution of new music in a timely manner. Today they only slow it down...unless it is one of the synthetic boy bands or girl pop singers that they made in one of their labs; then they push the popularity to heights that most good performers will never see.

815.7.2010 02:28

Originally posted by Bluevoid:
You're all not looking at the broader picture. By suing a few people it causes fear. Fear keeps some from pirating, and puts them back in stores buying the media legitimately.
Thank you! I thought I was going to have to be the one to point this out. Now admittedly, my first reaction was "wow what a waste of money" but then I thought about it..

915.7.2010 02:55

From Collins English Dictionary:
Terrorist - a person who employs terror or terrorism, esp as a political weapon

Terror - great fear, panic, or dread

If their goal is to create great fear, and thus get people to pay insane prices for music, then they are terrorists.

If their goal is to create panic, and make someone stop pirating for a little while, then they are terrorists.

If their goal is to make people dread a lawsuit claiming that their laser printer pirated a movie, then they are terrorists.

Nothing in the definition says anything about blowing up buildings or killing people. I think it is pretty clear that they are terrorists.

1015.7.2010 07:49

It costs money to bully the public....

1116.7.2010 22:30

Originally posted by Bluevoid:
You're all not looking at the broader picture. By suing a few people it causes fear. Fear keeps some from pirating, and puts them back in stores buying the media legitimately.
No it doesn't, it merely removes people from the market, if you do anything with their products and you end up getting sued then why would you bother at all buying anything from them.

They are still losing market sales, mainly due to MP3 sales which currently they don't sell any MP3s currently.

Quote:
Not that I am condoning massive lawsuits against your customers, just that they are most likely recouping the legal costs through increased purchases.
Even though it hasn't ATM it's only levelled out yet the record companies are expecting more sales, as this boosts up the share price.

The problem is that you'll only have so many customers and those are being chased away, because you might get sued.

1218.7.2010 13:21

Maybe artists should take note where the RIAA are spending their money. They've used the Poor Musician card to justify taking ordinary people to court and at the same time spend twenty times the amount thats collected on legal fees..
In any normal company these jerks would be fired for wasting company assets. These scumbags are screwing both ends the ARTIST and the USER. We all know who's running it all, the ones who get paid the most

Its about time the RIAA got an enema , its the ONLY way to wash away the sh*t . STOP the lawyers running the RIAA

1318.7.2010 17:21

Record industry Records they still make those.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 18 Jul 2010 @ 5:21

141.8.2010 02:02

Originally posted by Bluevoid:
You're all not looking at the broader picture. By suing a few people it causes fear. Fear keeps some from pirating, and puts them back in stores buying the media legitimately. Not that I am condoning massive lawsuits against your customers, just that they are most likely recouping the legal costs through increased purchases. In case you think "That will stop nobody" well smart guy, there are tons of Joe Shmoe's out there that don't want to be hassled with a lawsuit so they buy. I know a ton, in fact I've suggested to many to go legit just because I knew they were too dumb to not get caught (we're talking LimeWire users here). So the article can be a bit misleading as to if they are losing money or not. It isn't that simple.
Yeah but the tons of Joe Shmo's that don't, there are mega ton's that still do.

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