Atlanta, Georiga police with
the help of federal agents, broke up what they called one of the largest CD
piracy rings in the country. Police believe the organziation pirated copyrighted
material with a market value of over $50 million dollars.
The ring was allegedly operated
by a Lawrenceville, Georgia man named Khalid "DJ Rock" Satary and
had been operating since 1999.
Satary, 31, and
four other men were named in the 15 count indictment. Garland Wayne Ethridge,
53, Carl Wisdom Smith, 50, Abedullah F. Al-Qudah, 31, Akram Abdelrahman Yacoub,
38, of Lawrenceville and Dalton Mark Howell, 48, were also charged.
Satary had nine
manufacturing plants to produce the pirated CD’s and three stores to sell them.
Over 127,00 CD’s were confiscated.
The CD’s, which
included The Beastie Boys, Tupac, Soulja Slim, Ashanti, The Jackson 5 and The
Commodores, were sold for between $5 and $15.
"The victims
of piracy operations like these are local legitimate music retailers trying
to make a living, as well as record companies, artists, songwriters and everyone
else involved in bringing music to the public," said Cary Sherman, president
of the Recording Industry Association of America.
