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RIAA Takes the Fight to the Streets

Posted by michael on from the whatcha-gonna-do dept.

Lapzilla writes "In an article from LA Weekly, it would appear the RIAA has taken their fight to the streets. Wearing jackets with "RIAA" emblazoned upon them, they have taken to busting street vendors in an FBI fashion for selling bootleg CDs and DVDs."

6 of 1,011 comments (clear)

  1. vigilantes by potpie · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is a word for one who takes the law into his/her own hands: vigilante.

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    Esoteric reference.
  2. Re:Cool... by Tassach · · Score: 5, Informative
    It's like vigilantism. Last time I checked, the RIAA did not have police powers. Even if they hired licencesd private investigators, the most they can legally do is gather evidence to present to a jury. If they're confiscating a vendor's goods (even if they are infringing copyright) without a court order, it is THEFT (the real kind). If they detain someone, it's false arrest. If they hit someone, it's assault & battery.

    Except under some VERY limited circumstances, private citizens are not allowed to enforce the law, and even then they are taking a risk of being charged themselves.

    --
    Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
  3. Re:Police Only Please by BHearsum · · Score: 4, Informative

    You are allowed to protect your own property with reasonable force. If someone tries to steal your car, you can perfectly legal pull him out of the car and kick him a few times to keep him down. Shooting the idiot is most obviously going too far.

    Here's a case local to me dealing with just this issue: link

  4. Re:Police Only Please by Lordrashmi · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Texas it is legal to use lethal force to protect property. If someone trespassing on private property they can be shot. So if at 3 in the morning I hear some crackhead breaking in my house I can use my 12 Gauge.

  5. Re:Time to get to work... by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 5, Informative

    Their attire is completly irrelevant to this point.

    Not if it would lead a reasonable person to believe that they are a police officer.

    If they represented themselves as police officers then they are guilty of a criminal offense,

    Indeed.

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
  6. Re:Time to get to work... by the+argonaut · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except what they're doing isn't a citizen's (note the apostrophe) arrest. In almost every state statute covering citizen's arrests, one of the requirements is that you turn over the arrested person to law enforcement for prosecution. The concept isn't that any joe citizen on the street can start executing his own style of vigilante justice, but rather that in cases where a police officer is not present a private citizen may act to prevent the carrying out of a crime - but as soon as is feasible the arrestee should be turned over to actual law enforcement.

    What the RIAA is doing in this case is harassing people who happen to be breaking the law, and I think the way in which they are choosing to pursue is of dubious legality. I wouldn't be surprised if they find themselves on the other end of a lawsuit in the near future over this.

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    fuck you.