First German file sharing arrest: Police in the southern town of Fuerth said they had confiscated eight computers after investigations initiated by the German branch of the IFPI led them to the house of a 25-year-old computer programming student. The IFPI said the man was using a clone of a …

The California Senate Judiciary Committee cleared SB 1034 on Tuesday, and it will now go to the full Senate for a vote: The spot bill was introduced by Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Culver City, in February as part of a package of music bills, including a measure that would prevent artists …

Copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, to be published on June 21, were found earlier this week dumped in a field in Suffolk, England. Now four have been arrested: Police said in a statement that two 16-year-old boys and two men aged 18 and 44 were …

Both I guess: Denver radio listeners and disc jockeys were shell-shocked Monday after rocker Ted Nugent used derogatory racial terms for Asians and blacks on live radio. The highly rated Lewis & Floorwax morning show on 103.5-FM The Fox quickly turned into a discussion of race relations after the ’70s …

A new survey indicates online file sharers are more likely to buy music than others: The survey was based on 36,000 Internet users and released by Web tracker Nielsen//NetRatings, a unit of NetRatings Inc (NTRT). It showed that nearly 31 million active Internet users aged 18 or older — representing …

Mash-ups sample from samplers: “Rock the Party” is an incredibly generic title, but the song is anything but conventional. Its vocals are lifted from “Let’s Get This Party Started,” Pink’s catchy and forgettable hit du jour. Behind them, though, is the rattling beat of “Rock the Casbah,” released two decades …

Forbes says maybe: Is Visa sinisterly putting the squeeze on the Internet porn business at the behest of the U.S. government? That’s just one conspiracy theory going around the industry following new rules Visa U.S.A. imposed late last year requiring adult content Web sites to pay a $750 fee and …

The SF Chronicle’s great pop music writer Joel Selvin on the collapsed Bay Area music scene: When federal agents swooped down on Sausalito’s Record Plant in 1985 and closed the recording studio after the owner’s arrest on drug charges, the doors swung shut on three projects that would all go …

This does not strike me as a great idea: you’re sitting on a porta-potty at a summer concert, the same one visited by dozens of your fellow revelers before you. I do not linger when forced to use a porta-potty, if for no other reason than I am breathing out …

Bob Marley has his every musical noodle being released; John Entwistle’s life is being auctioned to the four winds: Rock legend John Entwistle’s prized pink bass guitar “Frankenstein” goes on display in London on Thursday before being auctioned with his collection of exotic fish, celebrity sketches and gold discs. ….”We …