I got a check in the mail yesterday! A year or so ago, I heard about a class-action anti-trust lawsuit against certain notable parties in the Recording Industry. I was eligible to be included among the plaintiffs. The charge was that “the Defendants conspired to illegally raise the prices of prerecorded Music Products by implementing Minimum Advertised Price policies, in violation of State and Federal laws.” Of course, the Defendants denied any such thing. Frankly, though, I’m a bit suspicious when the cost of CDs has dropped to the point that AOL gives out massive numbers of them for free, and yet prices on the CDs keep getting noticibly more expensive. So, I signed up. The end result is that the Defendants settled out-of-court for about $67 million cash, plut $75 million in “charitable CD contributions to non-profit organizations.” Well, after all the tallying was done, I got my check for $13.86 yesterday.

A few years ago, that would have been enough to buy a CD.