RIAA Hires Artists, Then Sends In the SWAT team

cancan writes "The NY times is carrying an article about how the RIAA is hiring hip hop artists to make mix tapes, and then helping the police raid their studios. In the case of DJ Drama and DJ Don Cannon, they were raided by SWAT teams with their guns drawn. The local police chief said later that they were 'prepared for the worst.' Men in RIAA jackets helped cart away 'evidence'. Just the same, 'Record labels regularly hire mixtape D.J.'s to produce CDs featuring a specific artist. In many cases, these arrangements are conducted with a wink and a nod rather than with a contract; the label doesn't officially grant the D.J. the right to distribute the artist's songs or formally allow the artist to record work outside of his contract.' " This is more of the shenanigans that we've previously discussed on the site.

Comments

ObMonkey Island Re:Criminal Liability?

[BabyDave]

"And if there's one type of piracy I don't like, it's CONS-piracy."

Re:Zappa

[digitig]

My initial impression: Entrapment That was my initial impression too. Then I read the linked article.

Re:Whoopsie, forgot the comma

[aquabat]

ba-dum-TISH! Y'know, that could be considered illegal reproduction of a copyrighted work...

Re:Zappa

[RealGrouchy]

if these hip-hop artists are really "gangstas" and are as hard as they claim, they will be gunning down RIAA executives in the street.

I thought they were DJs, which means they'd have to first sample some real hip-hop "gangstas" gunning down RIAA executives, then perform a mix of those samples.

- RG>