Cop Accused of Being a CD Pirate

By Rachelle Bowden in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 9, 2004 2:05PM

Officials say that a 4-year vetran Chicago cop pirated a half million dollars worth of music CDs. Neftalie Gonzalez, 40, was arrested after a 4-month internal investigation. He's been charged with misconduct and 2 counts of unlawful use of recorded sound.* Gonzalez is being held on a $50,000 bond.

Gonzalez was videotaped selling pirated CDs to an undercover police officer. He was arrested on Sunday at the Swap-O-Rama (seriously!?) flea market. He also owns a music store called Musicologia. When the store was searched, officers found 5,000 allegedly pirated CDs, a color printer, a shrink-wrapping machine and 45,000 label inserts.

It sounds like a big bust, but we can't help but think that Chicago has a small problem with pirated CDs compared to cities like New York, where they're being thrust in your face when you're walking down the street. And anyway, who's buying pirated CDs? Pirated digital is where it's been at for the past 4 years, at least!

* In case you're wondering what exactly "unlawful use of recorded sound" is, because we sure were, there's an IL law that says that it is illegal to copy an audio or audiovisual work, not without the permission of the copyright holder, but without the permission of the owner of the physical master recording. Sounds pretty harsh.