Last week it was reported that the RIAA along with the US Secret Service had made a huge bust in the borough of Queens, NY.

We applaud the RIAA and Secret Service? for finally going after the real pirates, which they've pretty much left alone while accusing their very customers of being pirates for sharing files via P2P programs, limiting the ability to play cds on our computers and in general treating their customers like thieves. However there are some questions that need answering. Such as how many CD-R burners were there really?

From the RIAA Press release:

"....leading to the capture of 35,000 finished CD-Rs, 10,000 DVDs, the equivalent of 421 CD-R burners and the arrest of three individuals. This operation alone had the potential to cost the industry an estimated $90 million annually."

When I first read this I asked myself "What is an equivalent of a CD-R burner other than a CD-R burner?" But I let it pass. I was wondering why the US Secret Service was involved with something like this, rather than their primary functions of protecting the President and counterfeiting of US currency. But I let it pass. Mistakenly so it seems.

The Register is reporting that, in actuality, it wasn't 421 CD-R burners, but in fact 156. The explanation? According to the Register article the RIAA official line was: "There were only 156 actual burners, but some run at very high speeds: some as high as 40x. This is well above the average speed,"

In all fairness I've contacted the RIAA and asked for a clarification of how many CD-R burners there actually were, and how the Secret Service came to be involved. This was on Sunday. As of yet I have to receive a reply, but be assured that I will update this article as soon as they reply. (which by the way, they always have.)

This once again raises the credibility issue with RIAA statements as to numbers, dollars, and in general anything they have to say. Remember when Hilary Rosen testifies in front of Congress, not once has she or any other hearing been "on the record" so to speak. Not one person has been sworn in, nor can they be charged with perjury for lying. These are information gathering venues, in which the Congress has been lied to, told half truths, and generally deceived.

On a personal note this reminds me very much of the Vietnam war in which "body counts" were quite regularly inflated to show that we were winning the war, and we all know how that turned out.

This once again raises the issue of the credibility.

The RIAA Press Release

The Register Article

TDK 52X CD-R Burner only $129.00 (only 1, but it counts as several) ;)