Apparently the music industry owes each of us $20

[Mr Toast]

I saw this one in my internet rounds. The site below has been established to handle the settlement (which came about because of allegations of price gouging...)

http://www.musiccdsettlement.com/english/default.htm

Reading the documentation, the settlement amount should be at least $5 and no greater than $20. The amount awarded will be based on the number of people that file (i.e. divide total settlement amount by number of claimants).

Note: If a large number of people file claims (reducing the settlement amount to less than $5 per claimant), then the money goes to charities instead, which is still fine in my book!

edit: apologies for the inaccuracy of the title of this thread... I posted this while going through the settlement process, and didn't get to the fine print until after this was posted.

 

[LowGuitar253]

Something smells fishy with this site...most of all, I would strongly advise everyone to think twice before submitting all that personal info via an unsecure web site. In fact, everything about this web site seems a little vague.

I know there are legitimate lawsuits concerning this issue, but there is very little info about who set the site up in the first place. But my primary concern is with the lack on an encrypted, secure web page - especially since they are asking for sensitive information like the last 4 digits of your SSN combined with Date of Birth...

Be careful out there!

 

[LowGuitar253]

Well it looks like it may very well be a legitimate site, as it is registered to Rust Consulting, whose web site indicates it is a firm that administers Class Action settlements.

I would still NEVER submit that type of info on a non-secure web site, especially for a maximum possible award of 20 bucks.

If anyone here submits the claim, it would be interesting to see when and how much the award ends up being.

 

[LowGuitar253]

Oops, I just noticed you said you filed the claim, Mr. Toast...let us know what happens...being in the hands of lawyers, I suspect this could take a long time!

 

[Mr Toast]

I am now digging thru the net finding links to this site... I will add them here as I find them. No sense giving out personal information without having some backstory, right?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030107/ap_on_hi_te/cd_settlement_3

 

[LowGuitar253]

I guess my biggest issue is the non-secure web site...submitting the form seems to be pretty much transmitting that personal info in plain text. I am pretty sure the site is legit, but that doesn't mean they have set up the technology a safe manner. Hopefully there won't be any issues, though.

PS. I just saw a brief story on the local (Seattle) news about the settlement.

 

[VVegas]

Don't do it. Use your head. There's also a Nigerian Prince out there who needs your money. Some cancer kid is collecting bussiness cards before he dies. Use your head or spread the disease.

 

[Mr Toast]

Originally posted by VVegas
Don't do it. Use your head. There's also a Nigerian Prince out there who needs your money. Some cancer kid is collecting bussiness cards before he dies. Use your head or spread the disease.

This has nothing do do with Nigerian princes or cancer kids. Antitrust statutes exist to protect us as consumers, and the day us consumers decide that we don't care if we are overcharged or otherwise abused, then it is a sad day indeed.

Do a google search to check the validity of this. When CNN and numerous local newspapers/news sites are following this story...

 

[Mr Toast]

Here's a snip from http://www.arstechnica.com.

The form itself raised a few red flags in that it asked for some personal information, so before hitting "Submit" I checked out the discussion thread attached to the post at boingboing.net, where I saw the link, to see if anyone had done any detective work. As it turns out, the boingboing crowd did a decent amount of calling around and checking, so read the thread if you're having doubts. Also, if you're concerned about security there's a 1-800 number at the site that you can call, as well as a snail-mail option.

Hope this helps!