Extortion, Entertainment Industry Style
from the pay-us,-or-we'll-ask-you-to-pay-again! dept
It appears that the British equivalent to the RIAA, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is trying to extort some money out of the huge cybercafe outfit, EasyEverything. Apparently, they used to have CD-burners on their machines, which BPI took as an excuse to ask for £1m to pay for all the "sales" they lost. EasyEverything said no. So, BPI came back and said "how about £380,000 instead?". Realizing the original tactic worked, EasyEverything politely declined. BPI's third (and final?) offer was £100,000. EasyEverything is now offering them £20,000 to shut up and go away. I still wonder on what basis BPI can claim that EasyEverything owes them money.
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