RIAA Paid $16M+ in Legal Fees to Collect $391K

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Lawyers love the recording industry.

Over the years that we've heard stories of the RIAA going after the little guy for illegal music downloads. Sure, the RIAA has the right to protect the interests of who it represents, but its efforts thus far seem rather… wasteful.

According to documents and figures obtained by P2PNet, the RIAA has spent a exorbitant amount of money defending musical copyrights, but has only raked in a small, minor fraction that back in winnings from infringers.

In 2008, the RIAA paid law firms Holmes Roberts & Owen, Jenner & Block, and Cravath Swain & Moore a combined total of more than $17.6 million. In return, it recovered just $391,000 back from its legal action.

DailyTech tallied up what the RIAA spent on its offensive and compared it against its haul from the pirates. Between 2006 and 2008, the RIAA spent $64 million to get back $1.36 million.

In the end, it seems that the true victor are the lawyers.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
74 Comments Comment from the forums
  • asjflask
    "In the end, it seems the true victor are the lawyers."

    You think? Hasn't this always been the case? No pun intended.
    Reply
  • brad799
    That'll teach them...to download a law for dummies book.
    Reply
  • Hiniberus
    Oh so this is why Americans have to pay through their nose with taxes on an everything, the money for the Lawyers has to come from somewhere. At least I'm pretty sure the RIAA/MPAA are financed by the tax-payers
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    they probably think they are actually acomplishing their goal by scaring people into not pirating.

    it'd be hard to prove if they are or are not mkaing this goal. but if they spent that much on legal fees and it somehow resulted in more revenue from fear of being caught then they are successful and mademoney despite losing money

    inversly if those people who usually pirate would have never paid for thier media in the first place and they spent more on legal fees than they would have in sold media to people persuaded to buy instead of download then it is in fact a fiscal loss
    Reply
  • Hatecrime69
    and to think, if they only had common sense they'd see this is a waste of time and resources, shame they don't have any
    Reply
  • Sabiancym
    hiniberusOh so this is why Americans have to pay through their nose with taxes on an everything, the money for the Lawyers has to come from somewhere. At least I'm pretty sure the RIAA/MPAA are financed by the tax-payers
    American Taxes are nothing compared to other first world countries.
    Reply
  • quiky87
    I don't think the RIAA's true intent was monetary restitution as much as discouraging future pirates (which can't be calculated monetarily). Although in the end they just end up looking like the greedy assholes they really are.
    Reply
  • duckmanx88
    hiniberusOh so this is why Americans have to pay through their nose with taxes on an everything, the money for the Lawyers has to come from somewhere. At least I'm pretty sure the RIAA/MPAA are financed by the tax-payers
    O_o they aren't.


    Reply
  • treefrog07
    Great ROI! Well it is for the lawyers. I guess RIAA likes capitalizing on the economies of scale.
    Reply
  • enzo matrix
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_7p4cvBURk
    Reply