This is like the studio claim that Spiderman didn't make any money and so they refused to pay Stan Lee while at the same time falling all over themselves to make Spiderman 2.

Or the how they cheated both the director and the family trust that holds the copyright on the JRR Tolkien works. Yeah, they're in court again, seems after taking in several billion dollars for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the family only got $64K to split among them while the studio execs pocketed tens of millions each.

Everything they have should be taken by a court of law and divided among the artists and they should have to go out and get real jobs.

Since when has the RIAA and MPAA been honest with the community and the stars they represent?

For some reason, I feel that they're holding onto the money and the artists/stars won't be seeing a dime of it for years to come.

This whole settlement crap was just a ploy to get more money into their pockets, kinda like the oil execs and their record profits.

Just how much interest will accumulate on 400 mil before the RIAA decides how much each artist gets from "the original settlement". Same ploy the IRS uses here in the states prior to "refunding" all those souls their hard earned money.

Sigh!!!!!

...is there actually a conscious being somewhere who was under the impression that the RIAA has the best interests of recording artists in mind?

To quote one of my famous Inq headline quotes, quoted from Einstein, "Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not so sure about the first one."

Hold on....

Okay, I'm ready.

"I am shocked and appalled at this travesty! I assumed the RIAA and the music industry were being completely forthcoming and honest about their sincere desire to compensate the hard work of the artists whom they claim to represent. This deals an unexpected blow to my faith in large corporations to altruistically use their strength in capital and lobbying for the benefit of the common man."

So, how did I do?

AST adds: Don't phone us...