The music industry has forced a leading internet retailer to stop importing bargain CDs from Asia to the UK in a deal that will add £2 to the cost of chart titles. CD Wow!, one of the few successful dotcom companies, yesterday reached an agreement with the British Phonographic Institute (BPI) to avoid months of legal battles. The move, which came days before the pair were due to meet in court, is a blow for consumers, who will no longer be able to buy the latest top 40 hit for £8.99. From Sunday evening, the Hong Kong-based retailer will charge £10.99 per CD to shoppers in the UK and Ireland to cover the higher cost of buying its music from within the European Economic Area. Previously it had avoided paying European prices by sourcing its CDs from the cheaper Asian markets. The settlement represents a rare victory for the music industry, which has suffered losses because of the number of music-buyers seeking lower prices on the internet. Philip Robinson, who heads CD Wow!, said that the deal was a "huge disappointment" but insisted that his business, which will remain in Hong Kong, was not threatened. "We're not acknowledging that we were in the wrong, but simply that the risk-reward ratio of spending months in court wasn't right for us." CD Wow! faced an injunction after the BPI claimed it was infringing the copyright of its members by sourcing its goods from outside Europe. A spokesman for the Consumers' Association said yesterday that the music industry had been "ripping customers off for years".
Oh, yeah. Let's raise prices. That will only SUPPORT piracy. DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND THAT THE REASON WE PIRATE MUSIC IS BECAUSE THE PRICES ARE SO F*CKING HIGH?!?!?! Jesus. Morons. I'll tell you what.
I agree with the both of you. Its true, thats the only reason I pirated music...until I got scared...now I don't use WinMX anymore.
When will people get some sense? No seriously. What's the POINT OF MAKING SOMEONE RAISE CD PRICES? This is why I buy CDs used whenever possible. It's stupid to pay $16 for 11 or 12 songs... The RIAA are officially a##-backward idiots. Say they lowered prices to $8. I would go on a CD shopping spree.
Didn't they just sue 543 more people $700 000 American each? It's somewhere on CNN.com and it's on the RIAA's official website.
What the hell kinda idiots work at the RIAA?! I think boycott would fix a lot of problems. . . Freaking idiots. I swear, if they wanna stop piracy, prices need to go DOWN MEGA. If the artists or some jackoff producer don't like it, we should make the RIAA tell them to go #### themselves. The RIAA controls everything, and they are jackoffs. We need the majority in control.
The RIAA can go to hell. Maybe a boycott should force them to wake up. I don't shop from CD-WOW but it sounds like their prices are expensive enough even before they've raised them. Getting CDs from Amazon.com Marketplace is probably the cheapest bet. I get my CDs, all of them in new condition, for prices as low as £5. The RIAA are trying to get the best of both worlds. They want piracy to stop but they don't want to slash CD prices. :angry: