yeah... the guys at lunarmagazine.com (local here - watch out for some language) thought these guys were morons and got what they deserved. At least that was my take from what I read on their forums.

They were selling DJ mixes for $10 or more without permission to release the tracks and they had put a disclaimer on the CD labels stating the money was to cover printing and design costs (yeah... RIGHT!).

We have a HUGE problem here with bootleggers. They will sell their stuff right in front of the cops. It's sad.

My question is why are these other news sites not mentioning the fact that he was SELLING the tapes rather than simply giving them out. He crossed what is acceptable by the unspoken label standards and was busted for it. Throw them in jail.

the hiphop scene still calls mix cds "mixtapes" from the old days... I guess kinda like how cdj djs still may be called "Spinners" and such... it's just old slang that never got old :-)

Hard drives spin, so mp3j's are spinners too!

Meh, neither hip hop nor EDM would be where they are today without the grey market mixtape scene. 

I never had a problem paying for mixtapes since I figure the DJ had to buy the records to put on the tape in the first place, so by buying a tape I was supporting the DJ, in sort of a trickle-up or trickle-down fashion.

Most labels used to turn a blind eye to this sort of thing and even appreciated the promotional aspect of mixtapes, but it seems there is a line to be crossed when the mixtape makers are making more money than they should.

I do chuckle at all the tapes in my collection that say, 'for promotional use only.' 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend those guys if they were straight bootlegging someone else's album from start to finish, but I've always seen mixtapes as something not quite as piratical as bootlegging.  The law says different, I suppose.

I remember in 1999 there was a huge mixtape scare in Toronto when a couple of record stores' collection of hip hop mixes were confiscated wholesale.  Every record and clothing store that sold tapes immediately pulled their own (mostly electronic) selection off the walls and you could only get them under the table for a while until the heat died down. 

I always tried to buy local DJ tapes as opposed to the "DJ So-and-So Live @ _______" tapes put out by mixtape mills run by the local promoters, just to try and support the talent.