DJ Drama Arrested in Mixtape Raid

January 17, 2007, 1:25 PM ET
Hillary Crosley, N.Y.

The office of Atlanta-based Aphilliates Music Group, homebase to Justo's "Mixtape DJ of the Year" awardee DJ Drama and DJ Don Cannon, were raided yesterday afternoon (Jan. 16) by the Morrow County Sheriff's Joint Vice Task Force and the Clayton County Police. The officers confiscated more than 81,000 mixtape CDs, to be destroyed, along with computers, recording equipment and four cars. The company's assets were also frozen

DJ Drama -- who recently took home four trophies at the Justo's 10th Annual Mixtape Awards -- is largely considered the top mixtape DJ and has catapulted and revitalized the careers Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne, respectively. His arrest now calls into question whether major labels will continue to utilize mixtapes as promotional tools.

Mixtapes have long inhabited a grey area for both record labels and artists. While the CDs are consistently integrated into marketing campaigns for hip-hop projects, labels do not formally condone the use of non-copyrighted music.

Both DJ Drama (Tyree Simmons) and DJ Don Cannon (Donald Cannon) were arrested on felony charges stemming from a Magistrate's warrant under the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act. The pair is currently in Fulton County Court for a bail hearing, which will determine their bond.

"We have a partnership with a joint vice task force working pirated tapes in the country," says Chief James Baker of the Morrow Police Department. "We found an outlet in Morrow for the criminal sale of recorded material, breaking the OCGA, Official Code of Georgia Annotated, no. 16-8-60, which specifies that CDs must list the true name and address of their office, which these CDs didn't, nor did they[list] copyright permission. People were able to make purchases over the Internet and these guys sold the pirated discs for profit."

Baker said this is the second raid in an effort to stop pirated CD sales.

"Our first raid also happened in Atlanta on Metropolitan Parkway on Oct. 11, 2006," says Baker. "It was run by a bunch of immigrants, the majority here illegally, from West Africa. We seized over $14 million of counterfeit CDs, five vehicles, cocaine and marijuana." Several individuals remain in jail due to that raid.

Aphilliate Music Group inked a distribution and marketing deal last year with Asylum Records. Nobody from the company was available for comment at deadline.

source: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/..._id=1003533767
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This could be interesting?

If my understanding of "mixtapes" is correct, they are actually "legal", as they are produced with the artistes' and recording companies' permission.

I wonder what the precise letter of the law is here? in the UK if you change >10% then it is not the original any more.

I thought that these mixtapes fell into that sort of category ?

IP laws run amock...Tecumseh was right in complaining white men made property of everything: water, land, air, even sounds.

Lots of bad karma here in the waning days of the Kali Yug.

aye, mixtapes are used to promote upcomming songs of certain artists, therfore they are somewhat legal.

He-heh, when all the sheriff has is a hammer, you're going to look like a nail...

Hmmmm,

It seems to me that although the RIAA was created by the Labels, it has now become a law unto itself? and like Frankenstein's Monster it is running amok :eek:

Mixtapes are not counterfeits............ the compiler probably has a copyright interest themselves because of the mix. They may be a copyright infringement, but only if they were produced without the consent of the artistes and labels.

The recording industry is rife with hypocrisy and corruption. I am sure there are those who remember the "payola" scandals? Well, this is little different IMO............ instead of paying the DJ a blatant bribe you let them make money out of selling the mixtapes, and they promote your stuff.

As for the "fruit and flowers" supplied by the labels to artistes..............that is one for the BNDD rather than the RIAA ;)

Yes, I used to work in the recording industry :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nihil

in the UK if you change >10% then it is not the original any more.

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you live in a reasonable country. here, no matter how much of it is changed, the copyright still stands (i think the life of a copyright here is 75 years, but i could be wrong)

so even changing 50% of it for a mix is technically copyright infringement, unless you have written permission from the recording industry and artist to use the music.

Yes, I know that our laws are somewhat different. I also wonder in the UK context, what status a "verbal contract" ( yes we have those :)) would have.

Some things need to be in writing such as real estate, automobiles etc. Others could be verbal or "de facto" as a result of the actions of one of the parties. For example, if I send a track to a mixtape DJ, what do I expect him to, and hope that he will do with it?

I think that the Labels have been deliberately vague in order to avoid accusations of Payola? I would have thought that they need to be rather careful to avoid charges of incitement or entrapment?

As for counterfeiting, over here you would need to reproduce an existing marketed product. Mixtapes do not fall into this category, as they are a unique product in their own right.

"Compilations" are somewhat different. Here the record merchandiser will have a product containing the works of several artistes produced for resale in their stores. They are commercial rather than promotional offerings.

In my time in the industry, I attended numerous negotiations for these contracts. These were between two business entities so there was naturally a written agreement.

;)

EDIT: This is an interesting approach: http://www.mixtapekings.com/disclaimer/index.asp

You buy a poster or something and they "give" you a promotional copy of the mixtape.