Big Win

Recording Industry vs The People is a site that chronicles "the RIAA's attempt to monopolize digital music and redefine copyright law". And today they pointed out how futile their crusade has been.

The RIAA paid Holmes Roberts & Owen $9,364,901 in 2008, Jenner & Block more than $7,000,000, and Cravath Swain & Moore $1.25 million, to pursue its "copyright infringement" claims...in order to recover a mere $391,000. Well done, sirs. And it's worth noting that there were many other law firms getting big money to not earn any - those were just the ones listed among the top five.

Even more hilarious was that it topped the numbers for 2007, in which more than $21 million was spent on legal fees, plus $3.5 million on "investigative operations", all to yield a paltry $515,929. The year prior was similar: in 2006, they spent more than $19,000,000 in legal fees and over $3,600,000 in "investigative operations" expenses just to recover $455,000. The total damage for a 3 year period - around $64,000,000 in legal / investigative expenses to earn $1,361,000.

Oh, record industry...your failures are so amusing. And expensive!