CRIA (Crooked Lite)

The crooked pimps at CRIA stuffed their heads even deeper into their own asses by trumpeting the RCMP raid on Audiomaxxx.com in Winnipeg as having led to four arrests. They went on to name one of those supposedly arrested. Gosh how that must have gone over among the corporate artist fuckers that strut around the floors of the Canadian Music Week festivities being important.

Industry knob polisher Graham Henderson hung himself out to dry by making unfounded statements to the press and industry, here he struts his stuff for the Winnipeg Sun.

Officers raided the Pembina Highway offices of Audiomaxxx.com two days ago as part of Project DVD and left with nearly 100,000 ready-to-ship music, movies and pornos allegedly pirated by company owner Raj Ramgotra and just as many blank discs ready to be produced.

Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, said the operation is the largest he's seen in his 10 years in the music industry.

"This is the Big Kahuna," said Henderson, whose organization helped investigate Audiomaxxx...

"Anytime you shut down something as big as this, it has an impact."

Well isn't that spiffy! Except that the details aren't quite as clear as Henderson led people to believe. His organization, the CRIA, found themselves on the wrong end of their enthusiasm (and the truth) and had to retract their earlier line.

Attention News Editors:
CORRECTION from CRIA
TORONTO, March 7 /CNW/ - In the CRIA media release of March 6, it was erroneously reported that RCMP had filed criminal charges against four people in connection with the RCMP investigation into Audiomaxxx.com Ltd. CRIA has received information that no one has been charged with an offence in respect of this matter.
In the same media release, it was also reported that Raj Singh Ramgotra was among those arrested. CRIA cannot confirm the identities of any of those arrested and therefore retracts its statement to the effect that Mr. Ramgotra was arrested. CRIA regrets the error.

Which translates to, we were so giddy that we might have given up someone's name to the media and called him a horrible crooked pirate even though charges are not presently filed. So please don't sue us, we only do evil in the name of good... and profit for our corporate overlords. Well, well, well. Isn't that a fine little mess. But it gets more interesting still, as the rotten shills have taken a page from the Blogging Tories book of making things better and just chucked their original notices right down the memory hole. Should Mr Ramgotra decide to pursue charges or file suit, that might turn out to be destruction of evidence. Cool.

This whole sordid comedy of errors is lovingly documented at the superb p2pnet. And let's face it, where there is shit to smear on one's chest and do the dance of the eternal peckerhead, Stockwell Day can't be far behind. Our Public Safety Minister chimes in with his value free assessment of events.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - March 7, 2008) - The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, made the following statement today concerning an RCMP investigation that led to the seizure of a large number of allegedly pirated CDs, DVDs and illegal digital downloads and the arrest of four individuals in Winnipeg.

"Counterfeiting and piracy are growing problems, both in Canada and around the world. The illegal reproduction of CDs and DVDs, which often involves organized crime, has very serious economic and social consequences for consumers and businesses across the country. Piracy and counterfeiting also affect the Canadian economy, corporate and government revenues and investor confidence.

As a result of this RCMP investigation, tens of thousands of allegedly counterfeit CDs, DVDs and illegal digital downloads will be kept off the streets.

Stockwell allegedly alleges the allegations are keeping us safe from alleged pirates.

But the really sad part of this whole ridiculous fuck-up is that when the dust clears, this heroic endeavour will end up hurting a lot of musicians. Turns out that audiomaxxx serves a legitimate and semi-legitimate clientele as well. They are one of the major sources for club DJs to have their mixes pressed and they are a major player in the international reggae scene. Little Stockwell can curl up at night in his Doctor Dentons and dream of riding dinosaurs with Jesus but if he wants to meet some real organized crime cats, he should investigate the underworld of the reggae music industry. So while Graham Henderson sips Cristal and tries to sweep his own crooked connections under the hand woven rug of corporate legitimacy, all kinds of the little guys that he wouldn't turn around to spit on are getting fucked over.

Much of the material in this article is sourced from Northworthy who did all the heavy lifting. Go check his article for more detail and insight.