http://nahright.com/news/2007/01/16/dj-drama-and-don-cannon-arrested-for-piracy/
http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2007/01/dj-drama-and-dj-cannon-arrested-in.html
And an official RIAA report last May says, "As part of its report, the RIAA for the first time has identified 12 "priority" cities as part of its nationwide physical goods piracy assessment. These cities – Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Providence, San Diego, and San Francisco – are all "hot spots" of music theft, with significant piracy problems from the manufacturer level all the way down to the point of retail sale. The RIAA will step up law enforcement training and commit additional investigative resources in all of these cities in the coming year."
The RIAA is beginning it's crackdown on self promotion and any sort of examples or paths to musical success that don't require the Recording Industry's permission. And the government has agreed to give them the authoritative power to do so. The official claim is that they were selling counterfeit CD's. That it threatened the major label's ability to make a profit off of their artist's music. In reality Mixtapes are a good promotional tool and can increase sales. The fear here isn't that they will lose sales directly to mixtape sales. It is that DJ's with the ability to release mixtapes are a clear demonstration of why the Recording industry is obsolete and unnecessary. By cracking down on whatever unaffilliated artist and promoters of artists that they can. they hope to stem the tide of independant musicians who are finding ways to succeed without signing their work they put their heart and soul into, to a record company.
Regardless of whether you are a fan of hip-hop or DJ Drama and Don Cannon, this is an issue you should care about. There are going to be more arrests and each person arrested, each musician, music dealer, producer, DJ, promoter, or whoever else they arrest needs to be put in the limelight. Every person the Recording industry hurts needs to be a martyr figure in the eyes of the media. Everytime the RIAA makes a move like this, it needs to be turned into a press loss for them. The only way to stop this is to get the masses to care. Tell your friends, enemies, family, coworkers, and acquintances about this. Post it on your blogs, your Myspaces, your Facebooks. Plaster bulliten boards, Spray it in graffiti, write it on bathroom walls. Free DJ Drama and Don Cannon. Fuck the RIAA.
-Brandon
