[Rumori] Quasi-legal RIAA squads crack down on street vendors

[Every Man]

Nah, it's legitimate, but it seems more like a scare tactic than 
anything else. The number of people sharing files on the net has gone 
way down since the RIAA has done simple things, like busting 
grandparents and 12 year olds. Why not claim to be building a police force?

If they pull it off, then this would have to be publicized as the most 
ludicrous usage of tax payer dollars to date. I do make the assumption 
this is tax dollars here, as per my understanding the RIAA is a 
federally funded operation.  The media is already presenting this police 
force as more of a "farce". The article below made me laugh, for example.

This is reaching too far, and I don't think they are going to pull it 
off for long, if they are even serious about trying at all. I personally 
think they are bluffing. This is just too silly!

Vicki Bennett wrote:

> Hiii
> 
> IS it a hoax?  I believed it to start with cos I'll believe most things, 
> and then I believed you that it's a hoax, and now I don't know.  Are you 
> guessing it's a hoax or has someone owned up?
> 
> Vicki
> 
> On 9 Jan 2004, at 22:43, Every Man wrote:
> 
>> This is truly a hoax. I'm just surprised the LA Weekly bought it!
>>
>> James Allenspach wrote:
>>
>>> The RIAA now has a Secret Police Force(TM). I look forward to the 
>>> press release announcing it has built itself an Evil Underground 
>>> Lair(TM).
>>> http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/07/news-sullivan.php
>>>
>>>> Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets
>>>> Quasi-legal squads raid street vendors
>>>> by Ben Sullivan
>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>> Even as it suffers setbacks in the courtroom, the RIAA has over the 
>>>> last
>>>> 18 months built up a national staff of ex-cops to crack down on people
>>>> making and selling illegal CDs in the hood.