http://www.betanews.com/article/On-second-thought-maybe-the-RIAA-did-conspire-to-fix-prices-appeals-court-finds/1263424081

Great article. Isn't the Justice Department supposed to be on top of things like this? Shouldn't they have figured out that this was price fixing and done something about it?? Oh yeah, that's right, they are too busy making sure Microsux toes the line on its browser. Oh, and let me not forget that they are now in the RIAA's back pocket.

The very first sentence in the article contains an inaccuracy:

"Did the United States' major record labels,...."

The US doesn't have major record labelS; we have one major label -- Warner Music.

Britain has EMI
France has Vivendi
Japan/Germany has Sony/BMG

They always seem to forget this.

Right.
EMI, Vivendi, and Sony/BMG like it that way . . .
because somehow our screwed-up or complicit
court system has let them skate on several major occasions by them pleaing "plaintively" that they should not be vulnerable to adverse litigation (since their mega-corporate headquarters aren't situated stateside).
Absurd, because even a common sense layman would recognize the validity of vulnerablity: If you do commercial business in a foreign nation, you still ought to have to abide by certain regulations in effect there . . . and it should simply be chalked up to the price of doing business in that country.

In the past, our court system has often let fat cats slide.

Grr-rr.

Here's a similar concept: If you order a product from a company headquartered in a different state, but it's doing business online in your state, you most likely have to pay sales taxes on that product (assuming you don't live in a rare state that doesn't levy sales taxes). It doesn't matter that the corporation is situated elsewhere. What matters is that part of their business is being conducted (remotely, but still transacted) in the place where you reside. Notwithstanding:
RIAA's attorneys get away with whatever the judicial system allows, and that's a lot.

The internet has changed the logic on Sales Tax. In other words, you can by a product from a company now that has no presence in your home state. Most home states guard against this by requiring you pay a "Use Tax" on merchandise purchased outside your state but brought in.