AfterDawn: News

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.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Jul 2010 13:50

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• 14 comments

• xyqo

  lol those dunderheads
  

  XXYYQQOO!!! Yeah WELCOME TO JAMROCK
  
  

  14.7.2010 13:58 #1

• Mysttic

  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.

  14.7.2010 14:30 #2

• Hyasuma

  personally, i think they deserves it
  

  14.7.2010 15:41 #3

• RastaDave

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

  14.7.2010 15:57 #4

• sssharp

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

  14.7.2010 16:58 #5

• 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.
  

  14.7.2010 18:58 #6

• KillerBug

  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.

  14.7.2010 23:29 #7

• Xplorer4

  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..
  

  Thermaltake Mozart TX Case - Core i7 860 - MSI P55-GD65 - 2x2 GB DDR3 G.Skill Ripjaws - Sapphire 4890 1 GB Vapor X - 2 Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2R5 in RAID 0 - 1x1TB WD Caviar Black - 1x1TB WD Caviar Green - 1x750 GB Seagate Barracuda - 1x320 GB Hitachi Deskstar - Corsair HX520

  15.7.2010 02:28 #8

• KillerBug

  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.

  15.7.2010 02:55 #9

• ZippyDSM

  It costs money to bully the public....
  

  Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy!
  Ah modern gaming its like modern film only the watering down of fiction and characters is replaced with shallow and watered down mechanics, gimmicks and shiny-er "people".
  http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

  15.7.2010 07:49 #10

• xtago

  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.

  16.7.2010 22:30 #11

• BUDDD

  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

  18.7.2010 13:21 #12

• DXR88

  Record industry Records they still make those.
  

  Powered By
  
  

  18.7.2010 17:21 #13

• FredBun

  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.
  

  1.8.2010 02:02 #14