MPAA, RIAA, joint operation
p2p news / p2pnet: The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD)says it’s the area’s largest provider of contract law services and that the concept has proven so successful that to date, 40 of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County were using it, “for their complete municipal law enforcement services”.
Does Hollywood count as a city? Maybe that’s why the MPAA and RIAA were able to get LSAD officers to act as music and move industry cops to “develop and implement innovative tactics to protect artists, songwriters, record labels and many others in the music community”.
Wow.
“Whether the pirates are on the street or on the tracks, they cannot escape the radar of these vigilant officials,” declares Mike Robinson, the MPAA’s (Motion Picture Association of America” new director of US Anti-Piracy Operations.
So what did the LASD do to earn such fulsome praise?
They nailed nine subway hawkers who were peddling counterfeit CDs and DVDs.
“Just as piracy changes, so must our enforcement strategies,” says Brad Buckles, Robinson’s opposite number in the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). “We cannot allow our nation’s public transportation system to serve as a vehicle for the pirate goods trade.” After all, “allowing criminals to line their pockets through the sale of pirated music … hurts local record stores, and musicians”.
Indeed. And it’s “damaging to the quality of life in the community as well,” he states without explaining what it’s damaging, or how.
The investigation was jointly conducted by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Transit Services Bureau, the MPAA and the RIAA, boast the latter two in a joint puff release.
They don’t say how many sheriff’s officers were involved in the farce, how much it cost or how many other investigations were side-lined while it was in hand.
February 15th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
I don’t understand..why is this a farce? They are going after physical pirates…which is smarter than going after P2P…
February 15th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
nuff said
February 15th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
How does this kind of stuff merit a +major+ operation? Don’t the LA cops have anything a little more important to be doing maybe?
February 16th, 2006 at 1:55 am
So … just nailing a few CD-sellers? I don’t take train-rides, and I don’t buy or sell pirated CD’s.
I love the phrase “damaging to the quality of life in the community as well,”. Yeah, go on — just throw that in there.
The “higher-ups” tend to use that phrase alot, as if to scare people into not pirating music.
“They’re not listening!”
“Oh … well … just tell them they’re damaging the community”
You’re absolutley right, it’s a farse.
February 16th, 2006 at 7:39 am
This is the LA County Sheriffs Department, not the LA City Police Department. These would be the uniformed people you saw on Court TV in the O.J. Case, the Menendez Brothers, etc, who primarily provide security at the county courthouses and run the county jail system. In addition, the also provide policing services to the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. LA County includes areas such as Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Simi Valley, Pacific Palisades, Rancho Palos Verdes, etc, in addition to the city of Los Angeles. Recently, some of these areas, such as West Hollywood, have opted for their own police department, leaving the Sheriff’s department with surplus ‘resources’. Now we know what use they are being put to.
What is interesting, is that in NYC and Boston, one needs to get a peddler’s license from the transit authority to sell one’s wares in the subway stations. Having secured one, one now has Government sanction to sell these items. When someone applies to sell items and just lists ‘CDs’ among the items to be offered along with T-shirts, watches, etc, no one asks what is on the CDs. One could argue that having such a license exempts one from RIAA thuggery of some RIAA dude hassling licensed vendors in the subway.
One also has to wonder why an organization whose mission is criminal law enforcement is becoming involved in matters that are primarily a civil tort.
February 16th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
I hope they continue to go after the ppl selling warez.. they’re the problem, not p2p users.
_-Jile-_