ATL SWAT and RIAA bust Atlanta DJs over mixtapes

DJ Drama and Don Cannon Arrested For "Piracy"

The early reports of the bust show so much ignorance of hiphop and racial stereotyping that it's hard to believe. Note that the piracy and counterfeiting referred to is actually normal mix tape CDs like DJs produce everywhere.

I hope some hiphop deeper pockets step up to defend mixtapes and hiphop DJs. Mixing is good for the original artists as well as the DJs who mix it, when original products are available for sale.

The APD are going down for the third time in recent news for outlandish overreaction. First they shot grandma in a botched drug raid, then they roughed up a visiting foreign historian for jaywalking, and now SWATting some DJs as if they were enemies of the State. If they only had a brain.

Stand up for your right to buy, sell and use music so we can put all this RIAA dawn raid crap behind us. The record companies are getting desperate enough to abuse all their customers all the time on top of the abuse they show their recording artists, so why support them anymore? We'd be better off without them now. We need a better way to compensate artists directly for the music they produce. This middle man stuff needs to be history.

Support Electronic Freedom Foundation who are working to end the madness by changing laws and educating folks in the legal system. (See the RIAA and DMCA sections and the action center for more info about what this is and who's getting arrested for what.) Keep up with the copyright madness and DRM news at BoingBoing

SWAT: Machine-gun-toting riot police in armor, intended for use against heavily armed bank robbers, now used anytime for anything.

RIAA: Recording Industry thugs, currently going around busting kids and grandmas for downloading music to create an atmosphere of terror.

DMCA: Digital Millennium Copyright Act - the bad (USA) law that makes all this bad craziness possible. Passed by the sleeping do-nothing-good former Republican-majority Congress. They probably didn't even read it, as usual. Could be re-worked if you pressure your reps.

DRM: Digital Rights Management: technology invented to cripple your use of the music and videos you buy, by locking you into hardware, erasing your music, reporting your activities, and destroying your equipment. Don't buy into handcuffed music players.

WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization - working to handicap broadcasters and websites worldwide.

If you produce or consume media and music, you should get involved now, because these bad laws and unscrutinized enforcement agencies can put you and yours in jail as well as expose you and your fans to unbelievably high fines. Musicians and listeners need to work together to make a better system before the recording industry labels and mainstream broadcasting dinosaurs put everyone else out of business. This is serious stuff and it's starting to look more like the ludicrous and losing drug war every day. What is decided now will likely affect artists and their fans for the rest of our lives and beyond.

Buy music directly from the artists whenever you can. Support independent publishing. It's possible for artists to make money without government and industry thugs spying on everyone, crippling playback devices and raiding DJs and busting kids.