Michigan Man Gets 1 ½ Years For Selling AEROSMITH, KISS Bootlegs

July 15, 2004

The Associated Press is reporting that a Michigan man was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison and must pay $120,000 for selling bootlegged recordings of performances by AEROSMITH, KISS, BOB DYLAN and BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.

Jeffrey Smittle, 44, of Ceraso, Mich., was sentenced Thursday in Pittsburgh federal court. He pleaded guilty in April to unauthorized trafficking in recordings of live musical performances.

Federal prosecutors said a November 2002 search of Smittle's former home in Canonsburg, a Pittsburgh suburb, turned up more than 11,000 pirated recordings, which they said he sold to music dealers, at record shows and over the Internet.

Federal prosecutors said the case was rare for western Pennsylvania but mirrored efforts nationwide by the recording industry and law enforcement to curtail bootlegged recordings.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the Washington-based trade group that represents the major recording companies, has set up offices with detectives, hired private detectives and worked with law enforcement to crack down on pirated recordings.

The RIAA says the millions of pirated CDs routinely sold coast to coast are costing its members $300 million domestically and $4.2 billion worldwide in lost sales and royalties.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).