Quick, Call the RIAA!

Send in the FBI! From the NY Times, this entertainment news from Iraq:

But when the troops peel off their flak jackets, they largely tune into their own play lists. While musical tastes among the troops are as varied as they are in civilian life, in the land of the Tigris and Euphrates let it be recorded: Soldiers assigned to civilization's cradle will rock.

At the Kirkush Military Training Base in the eastern Iraqi desert less than 15 miles from the frontier with Iran, an hour's wait for a helicopter was spent listening to Marilyn Manson, Eminem and Shania Twain before the Black Hawk fired up its turbines and somebody back in the barracks, as if on cue and with a dark sense of irony, cranked up Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

The songs came from a European satellite music channel and a communal computer where 12.8 gigabites of tunes had been downloaded for sharing on MP3's. The rule was simple: Take some music, add some music.

"Any time anybody on the team gets a new CD, they load it in, so we stay pretty current," said Sgt. Thomas R. Mena.

Houston, we've got a file sharing problem...

(Kidding of course, whose gonna stop 'em?)

As the new CD from Tool blasted in the barracks, Sergeant Mena scrolled through the computerized music library, which ranged from Abba and AC/DC, through Limp Biskit and Metallica and on to Van Halen and ZZ Top.

Émigrés from West Africa who joined the Army for citizenship and career training arrived with the latest Nigerian pop CD's. Chinese-Americans hauled along hot Hong Kong video imports.

"We've got the whole world under one tent," said Pfc. Nicholas Allen of the First Infantry Division's Third Brigade Combat Team.

Troops running a checkpoint near the Kuwait border end their day by listening to Bush, not their commander in chief but the grunge riffs of a band with the same name.

Inside the Baghdad Green Zone, the walled-off sector of central Baghdad whose palaces are home to the American-led occupation authority, Ludacris and R. Kelly were heard within earshot of the broad promenade where Saddam Hussein celebrated victories under crossed swords that reach five stories into the sky.

A Green Beret sergeant in his 40's, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and now in Iraq to train new domestic security forces, said he packed Grateful Dead CD's next to his laser rangefinder.

The country and western of Dwight Yoakam blared from a mechanics' bay at Taji airfield, north of the Iraqi capital, even as a bass drum of captured ordnance rumbled in a controlled detonation.

<...>

"Back in Vietnam you had those doing recreational drugs on one side and the heavy drinking on another," he said. "Here there's no alcohol allowed. And drugs aren't the thing anymore (Greyhawk note: Note the distinction). Everybody has their own MP3 player to pass the time."

But for those who don't, there's alway old reliable, the Armed Forces Network

"Our format is `Bright Adult Contemporary,' which is mainstream hits," said Lt. Col. Mathew Durham, who is in charge of the American Forces Network in Baghdad. "Naturally we have to be careful about what we play in an Islamic nation. But we've got a big play list."

Yeah, wouldn't want to irritate the locals. We'll assume Howard Stern isn't one of the jocks?

Soldiers at checkpoints, where headphones are prohibited, are among the most loyal network radio listeners. The messages they hear between the songs are mostly lowest common denominator public service announcements, urging soldiers to clear their weapons before entering dining halls, to drink more bottled water as March temperatures push toward 100 degrees, to write home more often and file their taxes on time.

Death, taxes, and certain other essential elements of modern life...

Hollywood's hottest films are here on the local markets, usually illegally.

"If a movie has been out in a theater for a week, you can get it here," said Specialist Michael Trujillo with the 819th Military Police Company. He said bootleg DVD copies of "50 First Dates," starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, were on sale just days after it opened in the United States.

Not surprisingly, soldiers tend to favor action flicks like the "Matrix," "Mad Max" and "Terminator" trilogies, "Tomb Raider" films, "Scorpion King" and "Cop Land."

Officers prefer "The Sopranos" and slightly more cerebral combat movies, like "U-571," a submarine thriller about World War II. Once you get enough stars on your collars though, the tube is turned to 24-hour news.

Careful now guys, wouldn't want you risking your lives defending your country only to end up busted for smuggling pirated movies back into the good old USA!

Update: Tim notices a different angle on this story. (Can't believe I missed it!)