Dynamist Blog

But I Bet the Lawyers Got Real Money

From John John Paczkowsk's "Good Morning Silicon Valley" in today's San Jose Mercury News:

Hey, those Martha Stewart sounds are even scarier this year... What do you call a stack of 48 copies of "Martha Stewart Living: Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween," or another of375 copies of "Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1971?" How about a CD price-fixing settlement award? As a result of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2000 by 43 states, the nation's five major record lables are adding thousands of CDs to the collections of state libraries, schools, government organizations and other non-profit groups. And according to most reports I've seen, the CDs the labels are shippping, are trash. Unless, you've got a better word for 1,400 copies of Whitney Houston's CD single "The Star-Spangled Banner" or 58 copies of Michael Bolton's "Timeless".

I've omitted dead or otherwise annoying links; the remaining one is worth checking out.

UPDATE: Danny Noonan of Electric Commentary blogged on this topic last month:

The Milwaukee Public Library got, in part: 188 copies of Michael Bolton's 'Timeless," 375 of "Entertainment Weekly: The Greatest Hits 1971," 104 copies of Will Smith's "Willennium," 11 of "Martha Stewart Living: Spooky Scary Sounds for Halloween," lots of Christmas music, and everything in between, from nearly all genres from rap to classical - and even 77 copies of a CD by chanting Spanish monks.

There was even mold growing on a few of the 520 CDs received in Mequon - a five-disc 1999 set titled "Respect: A Century of Women in Music."

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