Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets

[Jelsoft]

Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets (http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/07/news-sullivan.php)
Quasi-legal squads raid street vendors

Though no guns were brandished, the bust from a distance looked like classic LAPD, DEA or FBI work, right down to the black "raid" vests the unit members wore. The fact that their yellow stenciled lettering read "RIAA" instead of something from an official law-enforcement agency was lost on 55-year-old parking-lot attendant Ceasar Borrayo.

The Recording Industry Association of America is taking it to the streets.


It was once a joke that the RIAA would hire troops to take the law into their own hands.

Looks like it's not funny anymore. :(

[shawners]

I dont mind them busting street vendors.. They dont love the music, but want to profit from what they get on the net. Music should be free of who enquires it =)

[Black Beard]

Yeah street vendors suck. they give pirates like us bad names.

I for one subscribe to the robin hood ethos of piracy - Rob from the rich and GIVE to the poor!

I'm even seriously considering putting myself out of pocket to buy a DVD+/-R drive because friends of mine are paying $10-15 for bootleg DVD movies. Best way of putting these people who "pirate for profit" out of business is to give away what they're charging people for!

[que-em]

RIAA use this to your advantage. Instead of coming after us, who don't sell your products for financial gain, go after the pirates. Pirates were here before us, they are here now but make less profit because of the freedom of the net, and they will be here after us if you get rid of p2p and making even more profit

[Killawat]

i think peeps who make a profit ofa bootleg dvds and stuff are fags. i share my stuff or i give it away for free. You won't catch me spending .01 on anything bootleg from some guy i was talkin to in an IRC chatroom lastnight.

[guido123]

http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/RIAA.jpg

[wonderboy2005]

am i really the only one here who sees how scary this is? i dont condone people who sell illicit software/games/music etc, but this is unacceptable to me. the riaa is not affiliated with the government in any meaningful way. as such, they shouldnt be able to act as the government. they are a bias party in this situation, and thus, should not be able to go after people like this. from what i read, it didnt sound like anyone was positive that the CDs (only 78, by the way) were infact illegal. if the RIAA wanted to do somthing about it, they should have collected all the neccessary information, then brought it to the police - not act as vigilantes. no other organization in our country has done this (to my knowledge), and if they did, i think the govt. would have somthing to say. but no, this is the RIAA. this is different somehow. you know, because they are being ripped off.... (as if countless other entities havnt been ripped off in the past). this is bull shit. the RIAA can go to hell.

[Ken17625]

"They said they were police from the recording industry or something, and next time they’d take me away in handcuffs," he said through an interpreter. Borrayo says

That's illegal. How about the street vendor pulls out his .45 when they decide to "apprehend" him?

You are either law enforcement, or you are not. The RIAA is NOT law enforcement.

[crackerjacker]

I dunno but this dont sound kosher. The riaa is not in the league to police themselves on the streets.
I hope the next time they do, someone kick them in there face and beat the shit out of them.

i am sure the riaa would be singing a different tune then.

[eclectica]

I dunno but this dont sound kosher. The riaa is not in the league to police themselves on the streets.
I hope the next time they do, someone kick them in there face and beat the shit out of them.

i am sure the riaa would be singing a different tune then.
That's what I would like to see. Let them depart bloodied and bruised, with broken CD shards inserted in their anuses.

[origin]

them acting as some form of police officers on the streets should not be allowed because they are in no way shape or form of law enforcement. A common lesson in life is each little bit of space you allow the oppoisition to use they will only take it use and and then want more and more until total power is reached. So if they are allowed to do this comfortably then when will it be legal for them to come into you're houses and do as they please? It is ludacris, this should not be allowed to occur. But like many other richous battles this is one where it is hard to decide where to draw the line to witch you stand since there is to many ways to interpret the information and take action upon it. On the other hand going after street vendors is a good thing they are the ones that are giving "piracy" and p2p networks the bad name in the world today. *MOST* of the groups that release stuff in the scene today include in there NFO files about how they do it for fun and that you shouldnt use it to make a profit from it. Me personally I do not profit from this type of thing I share with others like me friends family etc but it is free (other than the cost of the media) because I want to be one who contributes to making the positive image for the p2p world. See that is usually the way it is when it comes to difficult situations we have a good thing going on and *MOST* of us bieng the general population or the majority use it appropriately and then of course there are those who use it in the wrong way to profit from it etc and those small percentage who oppose the majority in right decision making paint an image for all us, Quite sad isnt it?
Although this will clean up things a bit for us all, don't let the RIAA even think they can start to get the upper hand in such a vital situation that is linked in more places than can be imagined!.

l8

[CTC Command]

Impersonating a police officer is a crime. From what I read about this on the Soulseek forums, the guy can't speak English and they swarm on him dressed very much like law enforcement. I've had encounters with real police on the street; they don't necessarily identify themselves as cops before they start whipping on your ass--in this guys mind they were police. The head RIAA guy in charge of "the bust" also made what I interpreted to be derogatory comments against Hispanic's. While I agree that selling what you get free off the internet is bad and goes against my moral compass, what the RIAA did is far more reprehensible; the two crimes are not even comparable.

[wapazoid]

I think it's perfectly acceptable for the RIAA to dispatch "agents" for the purpose of gathering information (legally). But this organization by no means has the power to independently apprehend and detain suspects. There is no shared power between the RIAA and state/federal law enforcement. If this were the case, search warrants and home raids would be common place for many filesharers.