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.
If that's so, could the RIAA be hauled into criminal court for conspiracy to commit piracy?
Revive the Constitution.
My initial impression: Entrapment And since when does the RIAA get to act like feds and be part of a raid? The boundaries of law enforcement between the record industry seem to be heavily blurred if this is happening. Sounds like the RIAA wants to do a little too much CSI role playing in these setups. I'm imagining little numbered paper tents on tape reels, ziplock bags with drink straws and beer caps, carbon dust on mixing console faders, etc. This is a ridiculous waste of time and money. Who pays for this? Is this tax payer money being thrown at the desire to feel badass in a dark blue jacket with yellow letters on the back? All for the sake of abolishing the spread of entertainment. so. over. it. GET A NEW HOBBY.
I completely agree. However, the RIAA did do something scummy: they're leaving BestBuy and other distributors be, free to continue selling the same CD's. Also, previously the DJ's felt that there was sort of a "you help us, we won't go after you" feeling towards the whole deal, that is no longer present.
Off topic: my favorite part of the article was when one of the rappers interviewed said he didn't support mixtapes, by which he meant he bought and listened to them (of course) but didn't like it when his material was used. It seems to me that it's greed and hypocrisy like this that permeates the RIAA and major labels. I guess that's normal for capitalism, and why I'm all for creating laws that protect citizens from the corporations as much as we have them to protect us from the government.
Last year, he published his findings in a book called "Overkill" (page here, direct link to free copy in 2 MB PDF here).
Also, check out his blog at TheAgitator.com , and his posts at Reason's blog.
And the number one way to stop the RIAA is to stop buying music. Put your money where your mouth is and enjoy the music you already have or enjoy the music you or your friends make. If enough of us stop giving the RIAA our money they'll disappear. Of course, breaking out the weapons cache sounds exciting too but I'd rather fight over something more (much more) important.
Mind you, the raid itself seemed a bit extreme.
They found none of the stuff that made them think they should go in armed. Still, I don't know what percentage of raids of this type do turn up arms/drugs, or how many they have to do, the gun toting could simply be policy.
I hate to use a phrase from the Iraq War, but it fits. It's "shock and awe" tacticts. Despite what Slashdotters want to believe, the DJs are bootleggers. This article stated that it found 25,000 CDs. A previous article I believe put that number at 75,000. Folks, this is an organized bootleg operation that got shut down. Going in armed is typical of this type of operation to shut down bootleggers. They do it to try to send a message of fear to other people who might be involved in the same thing.
I'm guessing you don't drive in the UK. Some of them are quite definitely put up for no reason other than as revenue earners. I can think of one road near where I live that's 40mph one side of a roundabout, and then 30mph on the other. No good reason for it. It's a nice wide road on both sides, no new hazards to justify the change in speed limit.
But they have speed cams, and that earns revenue. You'd almost think they were deliberately trying to catch motorists out, wouldn't you?
But the thing that really gripes me about that particular case is that it introduces an unnecessary hazard. If a motorist is caught out by the speed change, and he's expecting the car in front to accelerate to 40 then he could go right into the back of the guy in front. And while it's still his responsibility to keep his eyes open, I'd argue that the highest aim of good road design is road safety, and that doesn't seem to be the case in this instance.
That's not to support the use of explosives, just so we're clear. But to say that there is no financial motivation behind some speed camera placements doesn't tally with my experience at all.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
The RIAA does this thing enough times, they're going to kill someone.
The routine use of paramilitary police raids for nonviolent offenders gets people killed on a routine basis. Three cops are now on trial for murder in Atlanta because they raided a house, killed an innocent old lady, and then lied after the fact to establish a bogus justification for the warrant. Police in Virginia raided a dentist's house for records related to illegal gambling, and one of the cops violated the two first laws of firearms safety and shot him dead when he tripped with his fucking finger on the trigger.
The steady flow of federal dollars for "homeland security" has exacerbated a problem which was started by the War on Some Drugs: incompetent, ill-trained paramilitary police forces who are both encouraged to "prepare for the worst" and given access to powerful weaponry. The result is a bunch of corpses. Corpses of innocent people, non-violent offenders, and even cops. The nature of unannounced no-known raids turns non-violent, low-stress situations into violent and stressful ones, with predictable results. In many of these cases (like the aforementioned dentist), regular cops showing up, knocking on the door, and serving a warrant, would be sufficient to perform the desired search. But when a dozen cops burst through the door with guns drawn, people get killed.
The RIAA instigates enough of these raids, the RIAA are going to kill someone. For copyright violation. It's just a matter of time.
This is truly what Fascism is, the binding together of corporate and governmental power. The corporations prosper and the power of their capital is fused with the power of the state to govern. Viewing fascism as corporations serving the government is only half of the story, the other half is that that power of the state is made available to corporations. This is almost a textbook example of the latter.
Think global, act loco
The post you responded to was inaccurate in that it was too generalising. Over here in Germany, for example, the police often put up blatant traffic cameras on notorious stretches, those which have suffered a high amount of accidents. After a week or two the revenues earned goes down dramatically, but so does the amount of accidents. Since the lost revenue is less then the increased expense of responding to an accident (not to mention the intangible price of a human life!), the planners leave that road on heavy rotation. I suspect that sometimes the cameras are placed but not "armed", simply to act as a deterrent.
But we've drifted far, far from the topic of an nongovernment cartel abusing police resources. A "speeding trap" is not all that analogue to the heavy-handed scare tactics the RIAA is now engaging in, destroying whatever sympathy any artist might have felt for them before.
Mind you, they can be sneaky too. In Victoria, though completely forbidden by the act, I've seen cars on the side of the road, hazard lights blinking, hood up, and the camera gear perched atop the engine, so it's completely hidden - usually there's a telltale flash lamp on the ground just in front of the car.
... The sneaky part is that the RIAA is hiring these guys to break the law. Yes, that's sneaky, but it's entirely legal....
Not quite legal, its called "Solicitation". You are asking someone to do something illegal. Same as if they posed as Johns asking under-cover officers for "services". They would be arrested for soliciting the officer for those services. The officer gets away un-charged, as they have a clear conscience in the eyes of the law: they have no intent to actually perform the illegal activity as they are officers of the law itself. In this case, the RIAA is more like someone acting like an undercover cop, soliciting the potential prostitutes, getting the actual services performed, then calling the cops on the prostitute, neglecting the fact that they already participated in the illegal act themselves.
tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org