Judge Believes Major Labels Attempted To Fix Download Prices To Protect CD Sales

A San Francisco judge appears to believe that major US record labels lied to the courts during a 2001 anti-trust case on download price fixing according to an investigative piece by LA Times reporter Joseph Menn.

The government was, "…investigating whether the labels had conspired to fix the terms for distributing digital music through two jointly owned services, MusicNet and Pressplay. The officials were concerned that the five big labels were colluding to discourage people from downloading popular music in an attempt to protect CD sales."

The investigation was dropped in 2003, "…but the Justice Department’s decision was influenced by two detailed "white papers" — one submitted by EMI Group and MusicNet, the other by Universal Music Group and Pressplay. In a ruling made public Friday, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel found that those papers were "deliberately misleading."  The judge has ordered that all relates paperwork including the files of the original lawyers be turned over for further investigation. (LA Times)