I suppose this type of thing is bound to happen. RIAA persuaded Fulton County officials into charging a pair of mixtape DJs with charges of racketeering. I don’t have the actual indictment in my hands yet (I have to write a request first) but managed to find out some details by searching for racketeering laws in GA. I found this under the state page defining rackeeting and includes the subsection
(xx) Code Section 16-8-60, relating to unauthorized transfers and reproductions of recorded material;
Ironically the State of GA doesn’t want to maintain an online copy of their own legal code and has given that to the Lexis Nexis company. So I can’t provide you with a direct link to the laws that I found. If you go to this URL you can search for the term “O.C.G.A. ยง 16-8-60” and see the same thing I did.
I haven’t heard of these two before today but from what I read online they don’t reproduce albums. They are hip-hop artists so they sample instrumentals from other underground and known hip hop albums and rhyme on top of it. Their works are highly transformative and significantly different then the originals. So let’s be clear what the State of GA is doing on behalf of the RIAA and it’s own citizens.
Violation of this Code section is a felony and is punishable upon conviction by a fine of not more than $25,000.00 or by imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than two years, or both fine and imprisonment
For selling mix tapes the laws on the books consider civil death a fair punishment. If you watch the video you will see a ‘psuedo-agent’ from the RIAA anti piracy unit. I noticed that Matthew Kilgo of the RIAA made sure to point out the website (which hints at interstate commerce) and then says CD’s have a 900% markup. The unnamed sheriff (Maj E.A Platt of the Fulton County Sheriffs Department) wearing an FBI academy lanyard tried to hint at drugs or weapons even though none were found. Fox news put the name plate up on the wrong person (ironically over the RIAA psuedo agent) and this is really telling of how the media portrays corporate funded organizations like RIAA. The RIAA is not a police organization although they seem to have a lot of the powers that the police do (investigation and searches) yet none of the contraints.
If you live in Atlanta please contact me or go to the Superior Court and ask for the indictment of case # 07cp62002 and send it to me. There is almost 0 coverage in the mainstream media and most of the information is vague.
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