Pro biker Dave Mirra is seeking more than $20 million in damages from Acclaim over disputed game “BMX XXX”: “BMX XXX” uses the tagline “Keep it Dirty” and features copulating pink poodles, shots of strippers in action and a variety of racing bike stunts. ….In the suit, Mirra said he …

Thanks to NPR for broadcasting the UN Security Council hearing on Iraq yesterday (live call-in show debating the war on NPR today starting at 1PM EST). In between meetings, I heard much of it, and man, did it bring me down – not because the rational, considered, reasonable pleading from …

Dan Epstein whines with pitch-perfect cluelessness about the woeful state of protest music today: “BALL OF CONFUSION (THAT’S WHAT THE World Is Today),” the Temptations’ apocalyptic 1970 hit, recently popped up on a local oldies station and set my mind a-stewing. That a protest song railing against war, racism, rising …

People like stuff, and they like to be able to get stuff in a convenient, fun place where shopping is an experience, even in Kuwait: Never mind Iraq. The British invasion began this morning, well south of the border, when Sir Richard Branson, president and CEO of The Virgin Group, …

We mentioned back in January that Sarah Lewis, singer/songwriter of Jag Star, Knoxville’s spirited modern pop-rock band, won the national USA Songwriting Competiton. As a result of that triumph, the band has been selected to entertain American forces in the “‘Stans”: Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Qatar. They leave Monday …

Verizon asks federal judge to “keep the cat in the bag”: Verizon Communications struggled Thursday to convince a skeptical judge that it should not be forced to reveal the name of a customer alleged to have downloaded more than 600 songs over the Internet. U.S. District Judge John Bates ordered …

Who says Austrians aren’t whimsical? the first viennese vegetable orchestra was founded in January of 1998. since then, nine people who are active in various artistic areas have worked together on conceptualizing and carrying out this project: instruments are developed; compositions selected or created with particular value being placed on …

Listen.com cuts its price per song download to 49 cents: Listen.com of San Francisco may have the songs, the technology and the distributors for a successful online music service, but it’s still missing a key ingredient: the customers. While millions of consumers are downloading songs for free from unauthorized services, …

First it was the colleges and universities, now the RIAA and MPAA are going after corporations in their anti-file sharing campaign: Movie studios and record labels are taking their case against illegal Internet downloads directly to corporations, where much of the offending action allegedly occurs. The Recording Industry Association of …

Why file sharing isn’t the recording industry’s biggest problem: It’s the busy season for number-crunchers at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). By the end of February, the industry trade association will release new statistics on what it says is a dizzying two-year decline in CD sales. The latest …