LA WEEKLY
JANUARY 9 - 15, 2004

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.

The result has been a growing number of scenes like the one played out in Silver Lake just before Christmas, during an industry blitz to combat music piracy.

Borrayo attends to a parking lot next to the landmark El 7 Mares fish-taco stand on Sunset Boulevard. To supplement his buck-a-car income, he began, in 2003, selling records and videos from a makeshift stand in front of the lot.

In a good week, Borrayo said, he might unload five or 10 albums and a couple DVDs at $5 apiece. Paying a distributor about half that up-front, he thought he’d lucked into a nice side business.

The RIAA saw it differently. Figuring the discs were bootlegs, a four-man RIAA squad descended on his stand a few days before Christmas and persuaded the 4-foot-11 Borrayo to hand over voluntarily a total of 78 discs. It wasn’t a tough sell.

"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 he has no way of knowing if the records, with titles like Como Te Extraño Vol. IV — Musica de los 70’s y 80’s, are illegal, but he thought better of arguing the point.

The RIAA acknowledges it all — except the notion that its staff presents itself as police. Yes, they may all be ex-P.D. Yes, they wear cop-style clothes and carry official-looking IDs. But if they leave people like Borrayo with the impression that they’re actual law enforcement, that’s a mistake.

"We want to be very clear who we are and what we’re doing," says John Langley, Western regional coordinator for the RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit. "First and foremost, we’re professionals."

Langley, based in Los Alamitos, California, oversees five staff investigators and around 20 contractors who sniff out bootleg discs west of the Rockies. The former Royal Canadian Mountie said his unit’s on-the-streets approach has been a big success, netting more than 100,000 pieces of unauthorized merchandise during the recent Christmas retail blitz.

With all the trappings of a police team, including pink incident reports that, among other things, record a vendor’s height, weight, hair and eye color, the RIAA squad can give those busted the distinct impression they’re tangling with minions of Johnny Law instead of David Geffen. And that raises some potential legal questions.

Contacted for this article, the Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said it needed more information on the practices to know if specific civil liberties were at risk.

But if an anti-piracy team crossed the line between looking like cops and implying or telling vendors that they are cops, the Los Angeles Police Department would take a pretty dim view, said LAPD spokesman Jason Lee.

"I will not say it’s okay to be [selling] illegal stuff," Lee said. "That’s a violation of penal codes.

"But it doesn’t really matter what your status is. If that person feels he was wrongly interrogated or under the false pretense that these people were cops, they should contact their local police station as a victim. We’ll sort it all out."

For its part, the RIAA maintains that the up-close-and-personal techniques are nothing new. RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy says its investigators do not represent themselves as police, and that the incident reports vendors are asked to sign, in which they agree to hand over their discs, explicitly state that the forfeiture is voluntary.

Lamy and the RIAA are unapologetic about taking the fight against music piracy to the streets. Though the association has suffered a few high-profile legal setbacks in recent months — most notably when a three-judge panel ruled that Internet service providers do not have to squeal on their file-swapping customers — community action is extremely effective.

Langley says the anti-piracy teams have about an 80 percent success rate in persuading vendors to hand over their merchandise voluntarily for destruction.

"We notify them that continued sale would be a violation of civil and criminal codes. If they’d like to voluntarily turn the product over to us, we’ll destroy it, and we agree we won’t sue," he explained.

The pink incident sheets and photos that Langley’s teams take of vendors are meant to establish a paper trail, particularly for repeat offenders.

"A large percentage [of the vendors] are of a Hispanic nature," Langley said. "Today he’s Jose Rodriguez, tomorrow he’s Raul something or other, and tomorrow after that he’s something else. These people change their identity all the time. A picture’s worth a thousand words."

Though Langley says he doesn’t know what tack his new boss will take, the recent hiring of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Director Bradley Buckles to head the anti-piracy unit has some RIAA watchers holding their breath.

On its face, the move looks like a shift toward even more in-your-face enforcement. But don’t expect all RIAA critics to rally to the side of Borrayo and other sellers.

"The process of confiscating bootleg CDs from street vendors is exactly what the RIAA should be doing," said Jason Schultz, a staff attorney for the San Francisco–based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

The EFF has frequently crossed swords with the record industry over its strategy of suing ISPs and individual listeners accused of downloading tunes from the Internet. A champion of copyright "fair use," the EFF says Buckles could bring a more balanced approach to the RIAA’s anti-piracy efforts. The more time the association spends rousting vendors, the thinking goes, the less it will spend subpoenaing KaZaa and BearShare aficionados.

Meanwhile, Borrayo will have to keep his eyes open for another source of income. Though he says he still sees nothing wrong with what he did, the guy who once supplied him records hasn’t been around in a couple months.

"They tried to scare me," Borrayo said. "They told me, ‘You’re a pirate!’ I said, ‘C’mon, guys, pirates are all at sea. I just work in a parking lot.’ "

GREAT ARTICLE TOM~!!!
I love the last line (of course...see my posting in the FAQ article)
""They tried to scare me," Borrayo said. "They told me, ‘You’re a pirate!’ I said, ‘C’mon, guys, pirates are all at sea. I just work in a parking lot.’ "

If only he had said "I ain't no pirate. See USC Title 18, Chapter 81, Section 1652 !"....

This is a super piece....the RIAA are more and more desperate...
"The times they are a changin'...and the RIAA....they are a Changeling..."

"QUOTE: RIAA

"A large percentage [of the vendors] are of a Hispanic
nature. Today he's Jose Rodriguez, tomorrow he's Raul
something or other, and tomorrow after that he's something
else. These people change their identity all the time. A
picture's worth a thousand words."

---John Langley
Western Regional Coordinator
RIAA Anti-Piracy Unit
"Music Industry Puts Troops in the Streets"
Los Angeles Weekly
January 9-15, 2004

What a bigotted bunch of jerks these guys are!

We need that picture leflaw has used of the RIAA shield carrying SWAT team!

I read this article and I'm still agast. NO PRIVATE individual or corporation has the right to dress up like police and raid a suspected (I repeat, suspected) dealer. Here in Coos Bay the police had the local Dominos Pizza cars turn off their blue topper lights because it resembled the blue police lights and could confuse people.

Yet in LA it's ok to run around with flak jackets and police style uniforms? No wonder the minority community over there is up in arms

I would so love for these storm troopers to try that nonsense on me. A face full of mace would be a good start. Then a call to 911.

I was thinking the same thing Code....

To what level are these scumbugs willing to delve? Now they have former police officers dressing up in gear and scarying the hell out of venders. While I agree it is better to focus on the bootleg copies versus the digital files, their methods disgust me. What deep, dark, damp corner of our planet did these vermin crawl out from?

and people ask me why I turned my back on law enforcement... This is a disgrace, any self respecting cop or former cop knows better than this kind of bullshit.. This is the reason why people have such a low opinion of the police. Too many wannabes and former schoolyard bullies around pulling this kind of crap and giving a bad rap to the ones who are trying to do a legitimate job. Screw it, why not just get the Hell's Angels or the Banditos to go around and bust up taco stands which hire illegal aliens. Hell with it let's just summarily execute anyone who's poor and struggling to make enough to feed their kids. They might be criminals too.

Someday (and it will come) somebody will shoot a couple of these bastards when they pull this kind of shit and they will get no sympathy from me.

Lets set a trap for these guys.

they are gonna try this on the wrong person and end up with a bullet in the head and i cant wait, they will have it coming. i dont have a problem with them identifying and then getting the proper authorities to make an arrest but for them to pull a stunt like this is just asking for someone to put a cap in their ass.

Impersonating a military officer is a serious offense. Impersonating a police officer should be the same. Give these guys 10 in the slammer, and give them time to think over their illegal intimidation tactics

Were they truely bootlegs or were they backdoor "missing" units?

What the RIAA shoulda done was call the real police and let them handle it. A law abiding person or corporation or organization does NOT have the right to take the law into their own hands in this manor.

--Oh, I forgot, the RIAA is not "law abiding."

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

Wait...this is for real?! I started reading it and thought that it was a satire piece. They're really doing this. What the heck?! I'm not saying that selling bootleg copies is right, but where is real law enforcement while these storm troopers are running around pretending that they have some sort of right to apprehend people and seize property, bootleg or not? You know I've never been under the impression that this country is perfect, but things are getting so far out of hand now. How do we reign this mess back in?

and my question is.......ultimately: why is the RIAA so worried about money? they clearly have large roles in other industries. VERY CLEARLY. I'm sure they have enough money, but even if they WERENT lying concerning that aspect.......why are they so concerned about money when they are all pretty much filthy rich? it seems both odd and fishy to me. who knows......maybe they are the ones who choose congress members now. we as citizens may never know.

They DO choose congress members. It is up to US to block and get rid of those RIAA choices. VOTE (but VOTE SMART!)

Shmoo

Does anybody know what the penalty is for impersonating an officer?

I belive the RIAA may find out the law works both ways if they take this any further.

When I think of the RIAA in riot gear, I can't help but chuckle, and wonder how true the New York Times comic on 'em really is

btw, in case you haven't seen it - go to:

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2003/09/16/arts/20030916_POPLIFE_IMAGE.html?8hpib

If they come to my house, I could claim that my family and I were in fear of our lives and shoot 'em all dead! Come on over fellas, I got somethin' for ya!

"They tried to scare me," Borrayo said. "They told me, ‘You’re a pirate!’ I said, ‘C’mon, guys, pirates are all at sea. I just work in a parking lot.’ "
ROFL!!!!!!!

"Wait...this is for real?! I started reading it and thought that it was a satire piece. They're really doing this. What the heck?! I'm not saying that selling bootleg copies is right, but where is real law enforcement while these storm troopers are running around pretending that they have some sort of right to apprehend people and seize property, bootleg or not? You know I've never been under the impression that this country is perfect, but things are getting so far out of hand now. How do we reign this mess back in?"

Thats what I was thinking. Sounds to crazy to be real. Then again these are crazy times. I'd say a group of wanabe commando types need to get laid or just go play paint ball. I know we could all send them hats with little twigs in them. Thats just trouble waiting to happen.

IndependenTim.. you're right, they aren't law abiding, they are "buy a law, DING!"
In reading these posts, I find a curious (to me) bit of consolidarity. A lot of the posts said that selling bootleg (or backdoor missing stuff) is wrong. Pretty cool how one article an bring out some other sides to the debate.
I'm not sure what they (the RIAA) hoped to gain here. In a good week, the guy makes maybe 50, 100 bucks. His profit is probably half that, so he's not exactly getting rich off this is he?
As for the "cops". Laws. Protect. There are laws in place that make impersonating a police officer illegal, but the LAPD didn't mention those did they. We've already seen how it doesn't work online, and I'm sure it'll be fought against and won in meatspace. It's just a matter of time, as some said, that someone gets a bullet in the head or something. Then what? The family sues the shooter? Gimme a break. This all smacks of martial law, bought and paid for by the RIAA.
ttmmm

Has anyone watched Pirates of the Carribean? Were all pirates, and that movie rocks.

Since the RIAA are buddy buddy with movie folks and TV....I can see a 13 episode show , and/or major motion picture coming from this....ala SWAT..

The voice over for the trailer would be like "(sound effects with slight reverb)
IN A WORLD, WHERE COPYRIGHTS ARE VIOLATED RIGHT AND LEFT...ONE MAN STANDS AGAINST THE FORCES THAT WOULD THREATEN THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT...CARY-SUE IS THAT MAN. SENDING THIS RIAA ANTI-PIRACY SQUADS FORTH ON DEATH DEFYING MISSIONS INTERNATIONALLY...HE CONSTANTLY FIGHTS FOR THE RIGHTS OF MAJOR ARTISTS EVERYWHERE....THEY ARE...THE RIAA ANTI-PIRATE TEAM SQUADS (R.A.T.S) )

The lead in would have RIAA swat teams descending on a South American drug shack...with a side business going of duplicating Snoop Dogg records and downloading 50 cent, from Kazaa...

not writing more..they have to get their own screenwriters on this one...

PS...if they pass a law against impersonating a human....I can think of people at the RIAA who should be looked at....

In the U.S. its a felony to impersonate a federal employee. Do I smell litigation?

Once again the riaa has lowered it’s self to the point of total disgust. When given the opportunity to be able to do things legally with real law enforcement, they choose to send out Gestapo style hit squads to strike fear into the hearts of the infidel (their consumers). Every other business in America would file a complaint with their local law enforcement agency, who would in turn do the confiscating of evidence. I guess one big problem is that perhaps they don’t want the “evidence” confiscated by a real law enforcement agency because perhaps it could be in reality evidence against the riaa it’s self. This was not meant to scare the Hispanic community although their bigoted remarks are sure not to endear them to it. This is just like suing a 12 year old girl. It’s for the shock factor.
Question is, how far are their goons willing to go? What will happen when they’re confronted by resistance? Will weapons become involved and shots fired and lives lost for the sake of copyrights? Are perhaps they targeting the helpless once again and don’t expect them to be able to defend themselves. If this man was an illegal alien, wouldn’t it be better to have had him picked up by the lapd for processing? But the fact that he is being interviewed by the la weekly, it doesn’t tend to sound like he is. What gives them the right to take the law into their own hands? Perhaps they should consider that the same laws and due process that they so flagrantly ignore and snub is the only thing that is stopping an armed revolt against them.

Exactly, those guys are acting like thugs. I have little sympathy for bootleg setups, but you just don't pull a vigilante operation like that. It's out of line.

"In reading these posts, I find a curious (to me) bit of consolidarity. A lot of the posts said that selling bootleg (or backdoor missing stuff) is wrong. Pretty cool how one article an bring out some other sides to the debate." (Remye)

I think that you will find that the vast majority of people on this side of the debate agree that stealing (i.e., bootlegging) is wrong. Fair use is one thing, making profit off of someone else's work is another. Where we bump heads with the music industry is in disagreeing with them on the issue of file sharing (p2p) as stealing. Stealing - no. Copyright infringement - we can discuss it. However, the primary reason that they don't want to use the phrase copyright infringement is because they know that copyright laws were set up to prevent others from unfairly profiting from the work of the original artist. It was not set up to prevent fair use or for that matter to guarantee the sale/market of ideas. The problem that they are having is that old copyright did not anticipate what fair use might mean within the context of a high technology society. So instead of addressing the issue using present world terms and trying to come up with solutions that could work for everyone, they prefer to protect "their turf" by trying to force old laws onto a new situation. It's not working, so they call it stealing, or using their words "piracy". Yes, I know Code…USC Title 18, Chapter 81, Section 1652. (There are no pirates here.)

The RIAA Gestapo!

I give the credit that there cracking down on bootleggers but impersonating law enforcement is taking it way too far.

If they send these troops to invade the homes of P2P users, shit is gonna hit the fan.

Well this isn't really new when you look deeper into the past of the Riaa and The movie Industry . Paramount Studios has for the past 10 years or more done the same thing over the Star Trek Franchise to the point that unless they have one of their legal copyrighted vendors selling anything at a convention they have the right to storm the place and take what they want and serve you with papers. The RIAA is just following thier lead and getting away with it too and unless the Police helpt stop them and we stand up to them it's not going to ever stop.

Daisy, spot on the point! I hope you didn't get the idea from my post that I was FOR bootlegging, or in any way thought people here are. I was just trying to say that there's been very little in the way of posts ( in my short time here) in either direction. I'm sure there are a few who are for it, but it was nice to have people be so vocal against it.
Guess I need to read my posts before I send em *smirk*.. or not.. always opens up fresh perspective.
ttmmm

Hey, i was just wondering, but isn't impersonating law enforcement illegal? If it is, then let's see the RIAA in court for this one!

No Remye, I didn't infer from your post that you are for bootlegging. I was just letting you know that you are not alone on this side of the debate in thinking that it is wrong. It was clear from your post, at least clear to me, that you just thought it was neat that this particular article caused people to articulate a perspective that had not necessarily been clear before.

whew! thanks daisy! and here I thought I was posting junk *smirk*.. not really. I do have a tendency sometimes to not be as clear as I'd like, and this just shows that sometimes it's just paranoia. I've actually got a question tho. Any of you lawyer types out there have any ideas on what would/could happen if someone gets seriously hurt during one of
these "raids"? Can the "victim" claim self defense? Can he/she claim that since it wasn't a cop that made the stop that harm was in some way justified? On the other side, if a person is hurt because he/she doesn't WANT to give up the goods so to speak, can they sue the cops? either for not being around (lax in duty or some such) or as the force (body etc) that was being represented? I know that sounds odd, but that's the only way I can think to say it.
Next question is obvious. How vocal or visible will the RIAA be when their goons are on the line for these gestapo tactics in court?
ttmmm

The weird thing in this culture is that, accepting money for something can turn a legal, or quasi-legal (whatever that is) act into a criminal act...
for example, one can give away sexual favors for free...no crime...you charge, suddenly, a crime. In certain cases, you can give advice of a legal type nature (varies from state to state), but if you charge for it...you've cross the line into "unauthorized practice of law"...and the bootleg issue seems to be another one..but more in the court of public opinion. I've seen a lot of people on the boards think that it's fine to share copyrighted song files..even a thousand with others for free..but if you burn them to a disk and get a buck for it...then they should lock you up. As I see it...the two centuries of commerce we have had under capitalism have some import on this view...people judge others by what kind of job they have (and how much money they get for doing it)...and even say...Joe Doe IS an engineer...not he is employed as an engineer..or Sarah Jones IS a doctor... the use of "IS" such that you define a person by the vocation,occupation, or profession, is bothersome..and continues to stress the value our society places on money. They notion that you are making a buck that "legally" should go to the copyright owner is where the indignation comes from concerning whether someone should be busted or punished for it...in my opinion.

The bottom line really, is both acts are against the law (i.e. making copyrighted materials available to others without the authorization of the copyright owner).