Tuesday, September 2 12:01 EST

NBC Announces Law and Order: RIAA Series

New York, NY - NBC announced it will be expanding its successful Law and Order franchise with a fifth series called Law and Order: RIAA which focuses on an elite division of New York police who are teamed with RIAA lawyers.

Lars Ulrich will star as a gritty New York detective and John Amos will play the chief RIAA lawyer. "Since most file sharing cases are civil and only consist of serving subpoenas, we had to take some liberties much like the RIAA," said creator Dick Wolf.

"Not only will each episode feature a tense tracking and capture of a copyright violator, but also a performance by the artist being violated," explained Wolf.

Chairman and CEO of the RIAA, Mitch Bainwol said that he really enjoyed the pilot episode where a 13-year-old boy who downloaded an entire 50 Cent album without paying, receives a summary execution from 50 cent himself. "It's a great combination of 'ripped from the headline' legal stories and music promotion. I couldn't be more pleased," said Bainwol.

Another episode features an NYU freshman who rips several tracks from a CD he owns and burns them in a "mix CD" for his girlfriend. Country stars Brooks and Dunn help Detective Smoker, played by Lars Ulrich apprehend the copyright violator.

"In the third episode we've filmed we follow several teens who purchase music legally from a Sam Goody, but then are beaten to death and have the music stolen as they exit the store by a band of music pirates," said Wolf. "Not more than 10 minutes later those legally purchased CDs are made available to millions of file sharers."

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