You might recall that a month ago I blogged about a SWAT raid on some mix artists in Atlanta with the RIAA.  Well, yesterday the New York Times wrote an in depth piece on the raid, and on those who were arrested.  Here are some tidbits:

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 16, a SWAT team from the Fulton County Sheriff's Office, backed up by officers from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office and the local police department, along with a few drug-sniffing dogs, burst into a unmarked recording studio on a short, quiet street in an industrial neighborhood near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The officers entered with their guns drawn; the local police chief said later that they were "prepared for the worst." They had come to serve a warrant for the arrest of the studio’s owners on the grounds that they had violated the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO, a charge often used to lock up people who make a business of selling drugs or breaking people's arms to extort money. The officers confiscated recording equipment, cars, computers and bank statements along with more than 25,000 music CDs. Two of the three owners of the studio, Tyree Simmons, who is 28, and Donald Cannon, who is 27, were arrested and held overnight in the Fulton County jail. Eight employees, mostly interns from local colleges, were briefly detained as well.
...
But Drama and Cannon's studio was not a bootlegging plant; it was a place where successful new hip-hop CDs were regularly produced and distributed. Drama and Cannon are part of a well-regarded D.J. collective called the Aphilliates. Although their business almost certainly violated federal copyright law, as well as a Georgia state law that requires CDs to be labeled with the name and address of the producers, they were not simply stealing from the major labels; they were part of an alternative distribution system that the mainstream record industry uses to promote and market hip-hop artists. Drama and Cannon have in recent years been paid by the same companies that paid Kilgo to help arrest them.
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Record labels regularly hire mixtape D.J.'s to produce CDs featuring a specific artist. In many cases, these arrangements are conducted with a wink and a nod rather than with a contract; the label doesn’t officially grant the D.J. the right to distribute the artist’s songs or formally allow the artist to record work outside of his contract.

This whole thing is quite disturbing.  Here we have the use of a SWAT team to raid a group who were copyright law, with guns drawn, ready to shoot.  Then we have another group participating in the raid who have no policing authority whatsoever.  The RIAA should not be participating in any sort of police raid.  They are not empowered by the people to take arrest anyone.  Only the police are tasked with that.  Add to that the fact that they used RICO to justify a copyright raid, and then toss in the bizarre twist that the companies that form the RIAA actually hire these guys on the side anyway!

So why would the record companies raid these guys like this if they normally hire them?  My guess is that they were becoming too popular in certain circles, and the record companies didn't like it.  The fact that they were then able to coerce the federal government into using dynamic entry tactics with guns drawn to take these guys is just scary as hell.