Slashdot Mirror
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.
Not as far as I can see from the article; the Slashdot summary seems misleading. As far as I can see from the article the RIAA had somebody busted that they had previously employed on a different project. I can't find anything in the linked article to suggest the set-up that the Slashdot article implies. Surely the RIAA does enough scummy things that we don't have to make things up about them?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
It seems fairly obvious to me. Rap stars need to have "street cred" in order to rise into the upper echelons of rap stardom. That means a criminal record. Say you were a unscrupulous record producer who had a hot new talent on his hands. Say that the talent happens to be a squeaky clean wannabe thug from the 'burbs. Once your man has recorded a record all you have to do is plant some evidence/drugs and make an anonymous phone-call. Heck, if you're lucky those cops might be the trigger happy sort and you'll wind up with the next Tupac on your hands. (Not to mention the fact that your "client"'s contract probably cedes all royalties to the record company upon death...)
It sounds far-fetched, I know. However, one really does have to wonder if the majority of hardened criminals driving the rap industry are actually the sort that wears three-piece suits.
The RIAA homepage needs to be slashdotted, repeatedly, and with no end in sight.
Is this a joke? Somehow I don't think a bunch of nerds throwing packets at the RIAA website is going to help anyone. They're an organisation that deals with other *big* organisations who they already have other communication channels with. They don't need a fucking website. Get real.
Taking up arms against them is also a ridiculously extreme idea. If you want to help remove the RIAA's power, here's a few ideas:
- Learn a musical instrument and join the free culture movement.
- Get a law degree and help out in legal battles against RIAA and any organisation (MPAA, patent trolls, etc.) doing similar things.
- Start an alternative RIAA that protects artists of copylefted music from distributors using DRM on their copylefted music. Sue the DRM distributors for the maximum amount.
- If you feel strongly enough to dedicate a few thousand dollars of your own, launch a copylefted media competition and make the thousands of dollars the prize for the best copylefted film/song/etc. (online film festival, music website, etc.)
"And since when does the RIAA get to act like feds and be part of a raid?"
My first thought, too, on reading the summary.
I do not know what it is going to take, but somehow, these **AA assclowns have to be stopped.
I wish there was a way to incite a universal boycott of ALL **AA related products. Perhaps that would get someone's attention.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
shot of a grave-looking police officer saying, "In this case we didn't find drugs or weapons, but it's not uncommon for us to find other contraband."
Or to put it another way, these people are completely innocent of all crimes related to drugs or weapons. Of course, by putting it this way, there's a clear implication that these people are somehow connected to the illegal drugs trade.
The underlying story actually makes more sense if you understand that the RIAA is not the recording industry, but a group that represents them, and that in all likelihood the probability that the story's claim that the RIAA "hired" any hip-hop artists to do anything at all is pretty close to zero.
This is more like Microsoft hiring some programmers to produce some kind of installation CD with a variety of applications, much of which is not from Microsoft, and then the BSA busting them for piracy. Yes, Microsoft is a member of the BSA, but that doesn't mean the BSA has much to do with the day-to-day decision making processes at Microsoft or vice-versa.
On the face of it, an article about the BSA raiding a company started by Microsoft wouldn't generate the same kind of Slashdot reactions. We might be amazed Microsoft ever started such a company, but we wouldn't think this was some kind of wierd "entrapment" thing.
Unfortunately, it remains the case that Slashdot seriously believes that the RIAA is a massive, monopolistic, music publisher as opposed to an industry group that represents publishers. Slashdot has, judging from the headline, gone beyond merely repeating this nonsense and now actually believes it.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
>Men in RIAA jackets helped cart away 'evidence'.
Uh, the defendant's lawyer is going to have fun attacking the chain of evidence there.
www.isoHunt.com
That will only hurt some lowly clerk in the mail-room.
Of course, 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. But then they would get real jail sentences instead of some cooked-up publicity that makes them look tough without really hurting them, and they would lose the huge income that they get from playing along with the system they claim to despise. So they're not going to do that, are they?
I wonder how much longer Hollywood Accounting will be allowed to continue. You would think that somebody trying to make a name for themselves by going after "the next Enron" would find Hollywood a soft target.
At some point, somewhere, the entire internet will be found to be illegal.
If you'll read TA - Page 1, paragraph 5 (last sentence) - it states: ...
Drama and Cannon have in recent years been paid by the same companies that paid Kilgo to help arrest them. ...
So no, according to the NY Times, it is most certainly not bull, or at least, not Slashdot hype. The RIAA('s member companies) actually did do this.
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
> I wonder how much longer Hollywood Accounting will be allowed to continue.
That would be 'forever'. The entertainment industry is very generous in helping to provide money and celebrity support to politicians.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Are you unable to think beyond your own tiny sense of self? Speed cameras aren't just put up as a revenue earner, or to piss you off. The pen pushers that make these choices do so do because, and you may find this surprising, they are thinking about preservation of not only your life, but the safety of millions of other people just like you. No fun to have someone you love killed because some retard wants to get home 2 seconds quicker.
Condoning violence is stupid. Being violent is equally as moronic. (Ex military, so I'd like to think I have a clue)
They were arrested on RICO charges which is one of the most abused laws in the nation. RICO allows for the immediate confiscation and auction of the property of the accused. It was originally used against the mob and later applied to drug dealers. The idea is to prevent them from using "ill-gotten gains" to fund their defense. So things like houses, cars, money in the bank, and other valuable property is sold at auction with the proceeds going to the state to fund further raids like these. In short, the DJ's paid for their own raid.
IMO, if RICO should be applied to anyone it should be the RIAA.
B.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
With RIAA joining in on the raid and getting the cops and the SWAT team to do their bidding doesn't it start to sound like the RIAA is an agent of the state? Or, more likely, the state is an agent of the RIAA?
As far as the first question, were they likely to commit their alleged crimes without RIAA inducement? Who knows...
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
Ok...I say then, just to prove it, let's take the revenue stream earned by speed cameras AND just old fashioned radar and manual police enforcement out of the picture. Lets fix the laws, and instead of giving the fines generated by this to the cops...lets redistribute those out to all those in the community that did NOT get a traffic infraction that year.
I guarantee, that if the cops did not earn a single penny from all the speed traps and traffic enforcement...if they did not have quotas to meet monthly, you'd see a severe drop off in the number of these setups. I think the cops would move on to other policing activities.
Down here in New Orleans, post Katrina, we're having a huge surge in crime....robberies, murder, etc.
I think our city would be much better served by having the cops channel their activities into more serious crime prevention, patrols and the like...rather than trying to earn money by giving out traffic citations. I'm not much worried about John Q. Citizen speeding to get to work on time to earn a living and pay taxes. I'm much more concerned about the thugs driving around 5 mph through neighborhoods, casing places to rob, or looking for a rival gang member to perform a drive-by-shooting on...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Which shows Gallagher is a human being and your co-worker is thoughtless and rude.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
If I flipped off a blind man, and everyone around laughed, but no one made a remark -- Would the blind man be hurt? Would it still be rude? You might consider not the consequences of an action, but the motivation for doing so. You then might find that maybe people do things that hurt others by accident. And sometimes harmless actions are manifested by sinister motives. It's not as black and white as She didn't know who he was, so no it wasn't rude. Gallagher was still hurt, regardless if the co-worker realized her harm.
---FourChannel---