A NY Times Article describes a recent arrest for making a mixtape. The article notes that mixtapes boost artists' sales. Recently I heard a great song from a mix tape at Starbucks, "The Light," asked the barista what the name of it was, then bought a copy of Into the Blue by The Album Leaf. (If you like Moby and the Icelandic group Mum, you'll like The Album Leaf.) I lent it to my neighbor the lawyer, who loved it and then bought an earlier work by The Album Leaf.

But the cops go on protecting our "civil liberties." Maybe the Libertarian Party should use this as a recruiting device.

The article notes a store in the East Village of NY where five employees were busted in 2005. Hopefully they are now libertarians if they weren't before.

I was going to post on this story but didn't around to it. Let me add a couple of things that were not clear to me before I read the Times story and may not be clear to all our readers. A mixtape is a CD rather that a tape that is put together, usually from copyrighted songs and then sold, often with the backing of a big name in the music business. It is good for the music business because it attracts attention to new recordings. A number of the record companies are happy to have the free advertising. At the same time, some of the companies are worried about the decline in CD sales--the same Times edition today reports that CD sales last year declined. CD sales in Korea have about disappeared and the music industry is now selling by internet subscription (see our post http://www.againstmonopoly.org/index.php?limit=10&chunk=0&perm=886089000000000722). The mixtapes are a sign of the future but not everyone is happy at the prospect.

Next thing you know they will be available on Pirate Bay if the RIAA fights them too hard.

Good points, John. I couldn't find the mixtape for sale at Starbucks. The article you mention also says that John Kennedy, the IFPI's chief executive, "promised to press the industry's legal attack on digital pirates this year."

Last year more than 10,000 users of file sharing systems in eighteen countries were subjected to "actions" of various forms. Hey, the cops can't spend all their time eating donuts.

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