Northpinellas: Officials cart off illegal music

Their business, the Music Exchange on U.S. 19, offered rare albums, independent hits and knowledgeable service. The music store also sold bootlegs, unauthorized recordings of live concerts.

Last month, agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Recording Industry Association of America came into his store with a search warrant. Agents seized about 1,100 compact discs, which Bandy said were worth about $10,000.

"We were dumbfounded by the whole thing," Bandy said Friday.

Now, the investigation has been taken over by the U.S. Customs Service in New Orleans and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Lafayette, La., according to FDLE officials. It's not known why. Officials from those offices did not return phone calls Friday.

"We kind of started it up with the search warrant," said Larry Long, an FDLE spokesman.

The RIAA has raised the ire of music fans who think the association picks on small businesses and album-hungry fans so studios and artists can make money. The RIAA's fight against Napster has been a recent example.

"The whole music industry is making it hard for little stores like us to stay alive," Bandy said.

Indeed, RIAA figures show that the number of search warrants, consent searches, seizures and arrests for illegal music have almost doubled this year. In addition, while CD shipments have dropped by 7 percent in the first six months of this year, seizures of illegal CDs soared by almost 70 percent.

Each year, the music industry loses about $4.2-billion to piracy worldwide, according to the RIAA. The association says artists who worked hard to make it big shouldn't have their recordings exploited. The RIAA says consumers are the ultimate victims because the recordings are generally of poor quality.

The investigation into the Music Exchange actually began earlier this year in Mason City, Iowa, when a detective began investigating a music store there for bootlegging. The detective learned the store received the CDs from Jason Bandy's father, Russell Bandy, court records state.

The Iowa detective contacted the RIAA, which sent an undercover investigator. That investigator identified himself as a distributor and began to buy bootleg CDs from Russell Bandy in mass quantities, records state.

The agent bought about 1,300 CDs, paying more than $6,300, according to court records.

Investigators then served the search warrant at the store, 25871 U.S. 19 N, and at a storage area. They seized receipts, invoices, balance sheets, deposit slips, check stubs, mail, bank statements, inventory lists and other paperwork.

They also seized computers, floppy discs, four compact disc burners, two label printers and other equipment. Boxes of compact discs and disc inserts also were seized, according to search warrant records, which were filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Pinellas County last week.

The search warrant cites Florida's grand theft and anti-bootlegging statutes as reason to search the business.

No criminal charges have been filed.

Jason Bandy said that while he knew he was selling bootlegs, he didn't think it was illegal.

"There's really like a gray area when it comes to bootlegs. If I really would have thought I was doing something wrong, I wouldn't have done it," he said. "I don't understand how I could be stealing sales when they're not selling it."

Bandy said customers have been upset that his inventory of bootlegs was seized. He said bootlegs have been an important part of music since the 1960s.

"We know fans are pretty rabid," he said.

Bandy said he bought the bootlegs from four or five distributors, who he did not identify. He doesn't plan to sell them again, though.

"It's not worth it, watching the money go out the door," he said.

-- Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or tisch@sptimes.com.

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