Then technology gave mix tape makers the edge over the copyright enforcers, and the CDs were back, in force, on the street. Frank Creighton, the anti-piracy chief of the RIAA, said that today, mix tape makers "daisy-chain" CD burners to produce 1,000 discs a day. He said most mix tapes will have a manufacturer's run of anywhere from 500 to 10,000, but that with hot titles the larger players step in to make their own copies — and copies could swell to 50,000.

"We've seen a real spike, and that's directly due to the cost of CD burners and blank media ....Now that you can get those blank CD-Rs in bulk for under 5 cents a piece, the practice has become as attractive as narcotics. The profits are just as great." He added that "thousands" of seizures and arrests are made each year.

...."The label people would say, 'You're destroying my marketing plan,' " Calloway said. " 'We wanted the pop-sounding single first. You are putting out this hard-core-sounding single — and it's going to upset the balance of what we created in this boardroom.' Whatever. But we, the DJs, were so connected to the streets we knew what people wanted to hear. Then these people realized that if you allowed these DJs to use a song from your artist on their tape, it could get that artist exposure and credibility."

That is exactly what happened in the case of 50 Cent. The rapper was deemed too volatile for the major labels after several violent street confrontations, including one in May 2000 that left him bullet-ridden and near death. Even after he recovered, a sub-label of Columbia Records that previously had him under contract wanted nothing to do with him. So the rapper immersed himself in the mix tape scene in New York and made celebrated appearances on collections by DJ Whoo Kid and others.

One of those mix tapes got in the hands of Morales, who loaned it to a bodyguard for Eminem. Eminem heard a star in the mix, and that led to 50 Cent's $1-million signing to Shady Records. The result was the fastest-selling rap debut since the SoundScan era of tracking sales began in 1991. The labels want it both ways, with their own "street teams" leaking advance releases to the mix tape makers to take advantage of the promotional opportunities, while the enforcement arm of the RIAA has retailers raided and prosecuted. It is this kind of rudderless hypocrisy that has removed the moral high ground from the label's war on file sharing and copyright infringement in general.