How much is enough?

Many of the people being sued by the recording industry are people who don’t have much money. You are probably familiar with the story of Brittany Kruger, who offered to pay $2,000, but was told that the settlement figure of $8,100 was not negotiable. Brittany writes:

“I make about $4,500 in a YEAR working at Dairy Queen, and they want a lump sum of $8,000+? I don’t know how that’s going to work. When I buy a song from iTunes, it only cost $.99. Not every college student can have mommy and daddy pay for all their problems to go away.”

Michael, a student at MIT, is another example. In a letter to Judge Nancy Gertner, he writes:

“I have contacted the plaintiffs’ settlement representatives and tried to reach a settlement, I offered them every penny in my bank account (literally offered them $2187.93 in August) but they told me that their $5,000 figure was non-negotiable and that my offer would not be accept. I told them that I was not trying to negotiate, I was offering them all I had, I’m a 20-year old full time college student, but we still couldn’t reach an agreement. I can’t afford a lawyer and I don’t have the time, being a full-time student, to go through a trial representing myself and this is why I want to settle this before it has to go to trial.”

A similar thing happened with Joel, who initially offered $500 for the seven songs he downloaded. He was rejected. Since then, Joel offered to settle a couple more times– offering up to $5,000– but no, that wasn’t enough.

Another case is Tracy, a single mother living with her boyfriend. She tried to settle for several years, but the RIAA wouldn’t accept the amount she was offering. They decided not to accept the fact that she had low income because she was “associated to” a house that was worth $650,000. It didn’t matter that the house belonged to her boyfriend. (With the court’s mediation, Tracy was able to settle earlier this year.)

The ironic thing about settlement is that there is very little room to actually negotiate. Unless you initially pay the full amount, the other side can reject your offer, and as time goes by, the settlement amount escalates. So the logical thing for anyone to do is to pay the money in full at the very beginning to minimize the costs– but for people who can’t pay the initial costs, the snowball keeps getting bigger and bigger. Personally, I think it’s a smart but dirty tactic, and it’s disgusting that this tactic is being used to wring out money from the poor.

-yvette wohn