Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Label Exec Arrested For Not Using Twitter

Label Exec Arrested For Not Using Twitter To Disperse Crowd At Mall To See Singer
from the what's-the-charge-there? dept

Peter Kafka has an odd story about an executive at Island Def Jam Recods, James Roppo, who was supposedly arrested for not using Twitter to get crowds to disperse at a Long Island mall, after they had gathered to see singer Justin Bieber:

Police arrested a senior vice president from Bieber's label, Island Def Jam Records, James A. Roppo, 44, of Hoboken, N.J., saying he hindered their crowd-control efforts by not cooperating.

He was in custody Friday night, pending charges that could include criminal nuisance, endangering the welfare of a minor and obstructing government administration, Smith said.

"We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message," Smith said. "By not cooperating with us we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk."

Now, that's quite a charge to make: that by not following police orders to send out Twitter messages you were "obstructing government administration" or involved in "criminal nuisance." Of course, the case may be made even more difficult because, as Kafka notes, Bieber's Twitter account actually did warn people to leave. Still, it makes you wonder how they get "not Twittering on command" to stick as a crime.

Originally posted @ TechDirt

Primary Colors

Normally, I do not just post pictures...I offer explanations and links to websites that do. But today, I just could not help myself. I saw this and decided, "This has got to go on my blog" So, here we go!






The original image can be found here