It’s really very simple: the DMCA prohibition against circumventing DVD copy-control is a clear violation of consumer fair use rights. What do citizens do when the law clearly violates their rights? They ignore it: A little program called DeCSS caused a lot of commotion when it surfaced on the Internet …

What with investigating and preventing terrorism and other somewhat important things, you would think we wouldn’t want the FBI distracted by tracking down Kazaa users. Not according to these two entertainment industry ass-lickers: A bill introduced in Congress on Thursday would put federal agents in the business of investigating and …

RIAA chief exec Hilary Rosen leaves office July 1, but will continue as a consultant: Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairman and CEO Hilary Rosen will be stepping down from her post effective July 1, 2003. According to RIAA President Cary Sherman, Rosen will continue with the RIAA as …

The outlook for record retailers is worse than ever: Declining CD sales, the hit from online downloads, and growing competition from the likes of Amazon.com (AMZN ), as well as discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target (TGT ) are pushing specialty music retailers to the wall. In the past 15 …

So here I found myself sucked into American Idol 2 this last season, watching intently and commenting inanely on the ins and outs of the competition, and really caring about the voting like millions of other boobs. I actually like Ruben AND Clay. And, to my astonishment, I found myself …

“Line dancing is fascistic,” I said to the bride over the phone. Silence for several beats. “I’m a dental technician,” she replied. That about sums up the wedding I DJ’d last night. I also asked her if the party center was east of west of the freeway. “I’m not good …

Exclusive 30-second clips of most of the songs from Warren Zevon’s brilliant forthcoming album The Wind are now up on the MSNBC story. It’s an excellent way to get a head start and this fateful disc. Please check it out – the Internet is a very cool thing.

After three years of appeals, virtually nothing changed in the Jello Biafra-Dead Kennedys legal dispute over (what the hell else is new?) royalties, songwriting credits, all the usual depressing crap you would hope a bunch of old idealistic punks could avoid. But no: Former Dead Kennedys lead singer Jello Biafra …

Looks like Pamela Anderson’s relationship with another lanky freak may be over: Anderson wasn’t wearing her engagement ring last week during a promotional appearance for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Florida. “The word that best describes me now is ‘free,'” the 35-year-old told People magazine for its …

Infogrames/Atari’s “Enter The Matrix” game sold more than 2.5 million copies in the first month of its launch in North America, Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan): “It is very satisfactory to see a title become a true success from its launch but it’s even more exciting to …