CD Price Fixing Settlement Check Arrives

Yesterday, even before this article was published, I received my check for $13.86 as part of the settlement.

It seems a number of record companies engaged in a price-fixing scheme:
The Distributor Defendants are: Capitol Records, Inc. d/b/a EMI Music Distribution, Virgin Records America, Inc., and Priority Records LLC; Time Warner, Inc., Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corp., WEA, Inc., Warner Music Group, Inc., Warner Bros. Records, Inc., Atlantic Recording Corporation, Elektra Entertainment Group, Inc., and Rhino Entertainment Company; Universal Music & Video Distribution Corporation, Universal Music Group, Inc., and UMG Recordings, Inc.; Bertelsmann Music Group, Inc. and BMG Music; and Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

These distributors were sued by the various State's Attorney's General's Offices and this settlement resulted.

All of these defendants are also members of the RIAA, the group suing people who share music on the Internet, perhaps had they engaged in less price fixing, keeping the prices of CDs artifically high, there would have been less file sharing and more people legitimately buying the music.

Now should I buy a music CD with the money or really annoy these defendants and buy a pack of CD-Rs?