Originally published April 3 2004
The RIAA's police state tactics are merely a symptom of a national trend
towards oppression and control
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Finally: someone is willing to stand up to the RIAA and accuse them of
extortion and racketeering. It's about time. The RIAA has been engaged
in a mob-like campaign of frightening teenage children and threatening
old ladies with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if they didn't
"admit to their crimes." It's all quite similar to the tactics of the
Chicago mob back in the early 20th century. The RIAA is out of
control, and they are rightly accused of running an extortion campaign.
But the important thing here is to look behind the RIAA and examine
what's happening to our entire country. The RIAA is just a symptom of a
disease: Police State USA. Under the Bush administration, the U.S. has
been transformed into a Police State. Federal agents can now wiretap
anyone for any reason, without notice and without a court order. People
are randomly "questioned" at airport security checkpoints where we all
have to "show our papers" in order to proceed. Individuals who look
anything close to Middle Eastern are detained by federal officers for no
justifiable reason whatsoever. And now, federal courts have given the
police the right to search anyone's home without cause or justification.
It is in this Police State environment that the RIAA has been
allowed to tromp around with official-looking badges, FBI-looking
jackets and "raid" the homes of people who are doing nothing other than
sharing a few MP3 files with their buddies. Now, everybody's a criminal,
and you can thank George W. Bush for creating the Police State mentality
that allows this sort of oppression to take place.
This isn't really
about the RIAA, it's about the future of our country and whether you
want to live in the USSA or a little country I used to know that was
called, "The Land of the Free." The United States is no longer free. And
the Department of Motherland Security (er, Homeland Security to you
Yankees) operates a whole lot like the KGB or even the Nazis. Before
long, it may be illegal to even print opinions like these on the
Internet. It's already being labeled "hate speech" which is suspiciously
close to "hate crimes" or "thought crimes." 1984, anyone?
Through her attorneys, Michele Scimeca contends that by suing
file-swappers for copyright infringement, and then offering to settle
instead of pursuing a case where liability could reach into the hundreds
of thousands of dollars, the RIAA is violating the same laws that are
more typically applied to gangsters and organized crime.
"This scare tactic has caused a vast amount of settlements from
individuals who feared fighting such a large institution and feel victim
to these actions and felt forced to provide funds to settle these
actions instead of fighting," Scimeca's attorney Bart Lombardo wrote in
documents filed with a New Jersey federal court.
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