Need Another Reason to Boycott the Majors?

This past week, 28 U.S. states filed suit against the five major labels and three of the biggest retailers, demanding "hundreds of millions of dollars" in damages. The lawsuit alleges that the labels and stores were in direct violation of antitrust laws, illegally fixing prices to the amount of 'several dollars profit' for each disc, keeping the prices artificially high and penalizing retailers who did not participate in the scam. This policy from the record labels was known as MAP - minimum advertised pricing policy - where labels subsidized advertising for retailers that agreed not to sell CDs below a minimum price determined by the labels. In May, the five majors agreed to ban this policy for seven years yet didn't admit any wrongdoing nor did they pay any damages. "Because of these conspiracies, tens of millions of consumers paid inflated prices to buy CD's..." says New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. For those interested in continuing with brainwashed on the temporary boycott, all five major labels are the following:

1. Time Warner (Warner Bros., Sire, Maverick, Atlantic, Elektra)
2. Universal (Mercury, DefJam, Interscope)
3. Sony Music (Columbia, Epic, Work)
4. BMG (Jive, Arista, RCA)
5. EMI (Capitol, Virgin)

The retailers who have been fingered as part of the scam include Tower Records, Musicland (and Sam Goody) and Trans World.