Phoenix, AZ – On Wednesday, March 5 at 2 p.m., the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a federal judge in Phoenix to block the recording industry’s effort to sue two Arizona residents for simply having music files in a “shared” folder on their computer.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is seeking thousands of dollars in damages from the defendants in the case, Pamela and Jeffery Howell, for alleged unauthorized distribution of copyrighted digital music. However, instead of proving that the Howells actually distributed music files, the RIAA claims only that they had songs in the “shared” folder of peer-to-peer file-sharing software Kazaa — without any proof that anyone other than their own investigators actually downloaded the songs from them.

EFF’s Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann will argue at Wednesday’s hearing that the RIAA cannot take this shortcut in its lawsuit campaign.

“This amounts to suing someone for attempted copyright infringement — something the Copyright Act simply does not allow,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann. “If the RIAA wants to keep bringing these suits and collecting big settlements, then they have to follow the law and prove their case. It’s not enough to say the law could have been broken. The RIAA must prove it actually was broken.”

For more about the case:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/eff-files-brief-atlantic-v-howell-r…http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/03/03

This is huge news. Yngwie Malmsteen is concidered one of the best guitarist living today. I am a huge fan of Tim Owens and always been a fan of Malmsteen’s guitar work. I will be buying this when it comes out. 
As BLABBERMOUTH.NET exclusively reported earlier today, former JUDAS PRIEST/ICED EARTH singer Tim “Ripper” Owens has now officially joined YNGWIE MALMSTEEN’s band. The legendary Swedish guitarist announced the news to the Guitar World staff today when he came to the magazine’s New York headquarters for an exclusive interview and photo shoot.

Malmsteen and Owens are hard at work on a new CD, which is currently scheduled for a July release.

Owens and Malmsteen previously collaborated on a cover of OZZY OSBOURNE’s “Mr. Crowley”, which appeared on the “Flying High Again: The World’s Greatest Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne”, released in March 2006 via Magick Records. Listen to the track on YouTube.

Owens recently worked with QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton on demo recordings for the new SOULBENDER album (Wilton’s side project). One of the demo cuts can currently be heard on the SOULDBENDER MySpace page.

Owens’s predecessor, Doogie White, was a member of Yngwie Malmsteen’s band for six and a half years. Doogie joined Malmsteen’s band in September 2001 and recorded two albums with the legendary Swedish guitarist: “Attack” (2002) and “Unleash the Fury” (2005).

“I had a long chat with Yngwie today and it is clear that he wants to move musically in a new direction,” Doogie said in a statement that was released to BLABBERMOUTH.NET earlier today. “It’s great news that he will be expanding on his undoubted talents both as a writer and guitarist. I just want to thank, publicly, Yngwie and the many band members past and present that I have worked with. It seems appropriate that we started our working relationship in South America in September 2001 and finished in South America in December 2007. Now, anyone need a singer??”

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=91666

I read this and I just had to post this. For my love of legos as a kid and love of mp3 players, this just awesome.  I just love the idea of this. You can buy the lego mp3 player, lego ipod dock, or lego ipod speakers athttp://www.homeloo.com/shop/index.php?cPath=31

Although not officially licensed, there’s little doubt where this little player got it’s design from. Most people have played with LEGOs at one point or another in their life, and with this player you can take it one step further and rock the streets with a player which brings new meaning to the word “bricked“.

Available in a variety of colors, the player seem to have no internal memory and rely on microSD (not microSDHC) cards to provide storage. Controls are hidden as raised dots on the front of the player, and there is no screen or other visible controls, so chances are that means no hold or shuffle mode etc. That and the fact the internal rechargeable battery will only give you about 6 hours on a charge makes this more of a novelty than a useful player, and with a price of $46 it’s not something you would buy for it’s music playback capabilities alone in any case.

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2008/02/lego-lookalike-player-brings-back-childhood-memories.php

This is Children of Bodom’s newest Video Blooddrunk. The album titled “blooddrunk”will be released on 04/07/08 but wont be realsed in the U.S. till  the 15th. Alexi Laiho (singer and lead guitarist) has stated that he has been feeling very aggressive while writing the songs, and that they will be faster and “thrashier” than the songs displayed on their latest release, Are You Dead Yet? He has also notified fans, however, that certain parts of the album will be more progressive.