CD-WOW slapped with £41 million fine for illegal imports

[MD]

CD-WOW was today slapped with a £41 million fine for importing CD's sourced outside of the UK market, something they agreed to stop doing back in 2004.

The British phonographic Institute are ecstatic at the result, CD-WOW on the other hand are still questioning why when the CD's are sourced from the record companies themselves is there an such an issue.

More to the point, does it really warrant a fine which is the equivalent of 180% of CD-WOW's 2005 UK revenue?

Let us know what you think about this result and the consequences for the UK market.

[starbuck]

Record companies are going to have to realise at some point that they cannot keep ripping off uk consumers for products that sell elsewhere for half the price.

It's a shame for CDWow and more importantly, the consumer.

Unfortunately, it's not an isolated case though, just look at the recent release of vista to see how much uk consumers pay through the nose for most things.

[nvening]

Its stupid record companies which do stuff like this that would make me not feel guilty if i were to download music.

Its pathetic.

[Workaholic]

Good thing they'll gonna appeal, otherwise other similar sites may be sued against for a similar thing i.e. play.com as they sometimes dleliver pre order games 1 DAY EARLY

[coco]

Another black day for the British consumer, if we can't buy legal cheaper cd's from CD-WOW then what other option do we have, be fleeced with overinflated prices or download illegal copies off the net.
Can't the British phonographic Institute work out what more and more people will do

[eek]

Cd-wow's problems are that they have a decent model but a business structure that gave the record companies something to attack. If they had no physical presence in the UK attacking the company through the courts would be pointless.

Mind you they are their own worst enemy at times. Any one who sells CDs cheaply and advertises the fact in the home town (Beaconsfield) of at least two record company executives is at least partly to blame for their own misfortunes.

[kalniel]

I think there's a big flaw in the opinion piece - other small retailers are able to offer similar prices to CD-Wow without resorting to illegal imports. These retailers deserve to be protected by law against cowboys like CD-Wow. Yes, sorry, I'm being a bit harsh, but I've no patience for a company that deliberately misleads customers.

It seems CD-Wow have no integrity, and it's about time they were called up on it. Without this ruling, consumers would have no protection at all, and other small retailers who played fair would go out of business.

This is a good day for consumers.

[Dr_Ub3r]

As rightly mentioned in the article, consumers are voting with there feet.

Everybody say aaaarrrrggghhh me harties!

[shaithis]

I have a DVD collection of around 500, all originals. I have a CD collection almost twice that size.


A lot of that has been tanks to places like CDWoW that let me impulse buy a lot more then I would have before.

If the cheap places disappear then I will only buy titles I am 100% sure of, which means pirating them first.....and that means 90% of the time I won't be bothered buying the original.

The film and record companies are already battling piracy and telling us about how many billions they are losing because of it, so why give consumers even more reason to turn to it?

BRING THE DAMN PRICES DOWN!

[wheelus]

You can’t argue/debate/legalese with Ali Baba when you are in his den. In this instance, it’s the den of big business, seemingly. Just because some monkey records something to show-off its “talents”, thereby giving a reason for its existence, usually expressed as drugging, whoring and similar indulgences, and being “promoted” by some money gouging organ-grinding pimp as “justified expenses and earnings”, doesn’t mean it’s real. It’s all to do with, “which monkey stuffs its reproductive organ into the hole”, first. The hole that is colonialism, mass hypnotism.

Humans have 7 subtle centres that correlates to the 7 notes of the musical scale with his emotional side being the “flat” and his physical and mentally projective side being the “sharp” of a musical note. In reality, true music invokes and raises one’s consciousness, elevating him from a “dull”/meaningless state to a higher consciousness, higher awareness state [??!!] Due to the vagaries of humanity, you can have audible notes [and it is not music when in this state, however a idiot or lunatic may protests] which will drive you to the depths of emotions or raise you to the heights of euphoria. Both these states leads to nowhere positive but merely takes you “somewhere” for a short time.

Accordingly, only real music elevates one’s consciousness and music is not for sustaining one’s blind wanderings in the darkness. If so, what the hell are “music” companies gouging for? For that octopus arm of colonialism called financial muscle, feeding tidbits to the yodelling monkey, which because of its charismatic ability to sell and hynotise, ends up as fuelling the cycle of lust, fame, greed and immorality. That which is not innately beneficial, is immoral which, of course, includes all denominations of the religious googoo-gagas. So, be clear in the first instance, what the war is about. It’s about indulgence and immorality for the prize offers nothing real but everything that is fantasy.

The Anglo-Saxon juggernaut, which includes its mass media, is driving the colonial façade worldwide with the voice of uncle sam at its helm. Others, like the Teutons, Gauls, and Latinos, might play 2nd fiddle, but they too would be similarly headless had they been at the forefront of “world events”. [And the same goes for other cultures, of course]. The way to burst a useless ballon is to prick it with the moral issue, not economical, political, military or other colonised avenues. That which leads to a circle merely waste you time and effort and brings nothing of substance to the table. You cannot change colonised/hynotised people by appealing to their senses for they are living with nonsense day-in, day-out. Like asking a drug addict to give up his dragons, which like cancer remissions, only result in a temporary respite.

Only the human who realises what he is born for, will change for the better, otherwise, he merely climbs up his “sharp” followed by a drop to his “flat” and the cycle repeats again. The way to awaken the idiotic “sharpies” or the lunatic “flaties” is self-reflection. To reflect on his actual condition and then deciding on the innately beneficial course and not relying on science or religion for that miracle cure or goodness. The only good person is the individual who decides to be moral, not what he hopes, coerces, debates, preaches, moralises or argues that the other nutter should be. Facing reality is imposible for humans, being addicted to hypocrisy and fantasy. It’s not that the other person is not a hypocrite, but clean-up your own house first before you expect others to do so.

The 3% colonials went on an expedition and on their return from the safari, they applied the same magic to the 97% locals. Through “exposing” the filth of others and not confronting the festering sore growing within their bottom, they rally idiots & lunatics using the façade of “majesty”, military, “sports”, “entertainment”, mass media, and more. And you want to change all these idiots and looneys? Give them a wet hole and a bananna, and the magic is done. Greed is what it is. Try changing the supporters of greed and greed will only go elsewhere or re-camouflage for greed is not for destruction by humans but by Truth. Change yourself and those who witness your change, will thence, but not before, HAVE to decide whether they are for Truth or untruth. Truth is what It is and as such, do not need representation, unlike some “pope”, “president”, “PM” or “charitable” crook, seeking credibility after the dirty deed. Truth only needs those who are untarnished, to reflect It.

All skirmishes within Ali Baba’s den are about sharing stolen loot. Do not judge others’ greed through your own greed. Believe-it-or-not, if enough people do that, these conmen will pack up shop for greener pastures, taking their pimps, whores, drugs, genderly-challenged and hypnotic tricks with them. “Yeah, like it will ever happen !!” Tsk, tsk….. Ever seen a drug peddlar [aka colonial] reducing his price? Not when he controls everything from mass media to “royalty” as well as having idiots & lunatics lapping off his feet through the inertia of ignorance and indulgence. “Go on, have another bananna… You know you like it/it makes sense even though it’s a little more expensive… And wait till you hear the next release, it’s ....” Those who are hypnotised, try, but those who are yet to be hypnotised, do.

[chuckskull]

This is ridiculous, we pay up to twice as much for music as other places and £43million is hilarious fine.

Many companies source products overseas and sell them here, it's a good business model especially with the strong pound. Cars, furniture and even food, none of those companies are fined especially not for 40 odd million.

See record companies do things like this and in the next breath chastise people for turning to piracy. It's not hard to see why when we're forced to pay more than the rest of the world for exactly the same product, which 9 times out of 10 is made in the same production line. It's just plain old greed, of course record companies are allowed to be greedy and exploit loopholes in the law, but if a consumer tries it, their liable to end up being harassed by the RIAA or BPI, their whole life and family dragged through the mud; not to mention being financially ruined. Whats the going rate £3000 an MP3 now? That's if you're lucky enough not to be falsely accused by a badly coded bot grabbing IP's from a P2P app. Which record companies claim is definite proof of illegal activity.

Anyone remember grannies and people without computers being sued? It took them months and lots of money to escape their clutches, what chance do us who actually own PC's have, regardless of any wrong doing.

These are legally purchased CD's which the record companies have seen their money from, but no it's not enough, this is completely ridiculous and everyone involved should be spending some time in jail for fraud in my opinion.

[Sinizter]

Wheelus amazing post - I am not quite sure if it makes sense yet as I havent quite managed to grasp it.