I've spent the last several days trying to get a good handle on the legitimacy and ultimate value of the TransUnion Privacy Litigation site (www.listclassaction.com). Here's what I've concluded: It's a legit deal and it has some value to you.

TransUnion, one of the "Big Three" credit reporting companies (Equifax and Experian being the others), was sued for selling consumer information it had collected to businesses for targeted marketing efforts. The law allows selling publicly available information but not private data, and TransUnion was accused of selling private data.

In a settlement reached in May, TransUnion agreed to offer free credit monitoring services to anyone in the U.S. who, between 1987 and May 28, 2008, had a credit card, mortgage, auto loan, student loan, other open credit account or credit line.

In other words, if you've had a loan or credit card in the past 21 years, you're entitled to join in the settlement.

So what are your choices?

1. Six months of TransUnion's credit monitoring service for free: 24-hour access to TransUnion credit reports and scores and e-mail notifications when changes occur on credit reports (a $60 value).

2. Nine months of the credit monitoring service plus access to the credit scores used in insurance decisions and TransUnion's mortgage simulator service, by which consumers can see how their credit score affects their mortgage rate (a $116 value).

3. You also have an option to hold out for a cash settlement instead of the services, but payments won't be made for two years and only if there's enough left in a settlement fund after all fees and bills are paid. Realistically, you're likely to get nothing and, if you do get something, it probably won't be enough to cover the cost of a vending machine candy bar and soda.

The credit monitoring service is an OK deal: It only covers TransUnion, not the other credit reporting companies. You're already entitled to free annual credit reports from the "Big Three" as it is. A mortgage simulator also is available free at many bank Web sites and the credit score used in insurance decisions is not the same credit score used by lending institutions to evaluate your credit worthiness.

Why sign up, then? You'll get a real world idea of what a credit monitoring service can actually do for you. This can help you decide if such a service covering all three credit reporting companies is something you want or would use. Since there's no cost to do it, and since monitoring one credit reporting company is better than monitoring none, it's worth a shot.

You don't have to provide credit card info to sign up for the service and TransUnion has specifically stated once the six- or nine-month period ends for a consumer, the free service will be dropped - no automatic renewal. You do have to provide name, address, phone, e-mail, date of birth and the last four digits of your Social Security number (presumably to verify you are who you say you are).

There's a deadline: You have to register for the settlement online by Sept. 24. Go to www.listclassaction.com to sign up.

By the way, if you haven't yet signed up to receive your free annual credit reports from TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, go to www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the official Web site set up by the credit reporting companies to provide you with access to your credit reports with no strings attached. Other companies offer you free credit reports but try to get you to either sign up for other pay services or sign up for trial memberships in services that automatically renew on your credit card. Skip all that and go straight to www.annualcreditreport.com.

Marketing

a band online

New bands looking to make their break at the national level have long known about and used the Internet to help get the word out on their music. Independent (meaning, nonlabel) artists were offering free mp3 downloads before the music industry higher-ups ever knew what an mp3 was or what the digital world would mean to them.

KingBilly is a good example of how a relatively new band (featuring Bismarck native Donny Fallgatter on lead vocals) is using the Net to build a following. The country-rock group, currently performing at the Minnesota State Fair, has thousands of fans who know most of their songs. Not bad for a band that has yet to release its first album.

KingBilly has a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/

kingbillyband), featuring their music, videos, photos, blogs, tour information, general information and visitor comments. Sign up for the band's e-mail newsletter and you can download a free KingBilly track.

An official Web site (www.kingbilly.com) also is under construction.

Online word-of-mouth promotion is an element of "viral marketing," using social networks to increase brand awareness.

Fans of the band help spread the news about KingBilly online and offline, usually following a pattern based on a marketing rule of thumb that one person tells three other people about a product he or she likes. Those people tell three other people each and so on, spreading awareness of the product like a virus.

That, coupled with free music and enough videos to give you a sense of the band's music and personality, can do as much to raise public awareness of the group as any other form of traditional marketing.

The Internet allows new artists to bypass a lot of traditional "middleman roadblocks" and information gatekeepers by going directly to current and potential fans.

Is the band good? Good enough to be represented by Trey Bruce, the man best known for producing hits for Trace Adkins, Randy Travis and Carrie Underwood. Good enough to be close to a possible deal with Big Machine, the record label that also features Taylor Swift.

Check out the band's Web pages and see what you think of the music and hometown son Donny Fallgatter.

(Keith Darnay is the webmaster and designer for bismarcktribune.com. His Web site, featuring this column going back to 1995, is at www.darnay.com.iec.)