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

Page 24 of Fujimi Shobo‘s Dragon Magazine‘s April issue — which is officially on sale on February 29 but was previewed early — has announced that a new television anime project is in the works for Hajime Kanzaka‘s Slayers fantasy light novels. The official title and the cast has yet to be revealed. The official Hajime Kanzaka Fan Club has confirmed the news and added that the project will feature an anime-exclusive story, split across two cours (two seasons of three months). Director Takashi Watanabe will oversee J.C. Staff, the same studio that worked with him on all three previous Slayers television series. Kanzaka also created the Lost Universe novels, manga, and anime series.

The fan club could not confirm who will be in the project’s cast or even if Lina, the popular character voiced by Megumi Hayashibara, will be featured in this project. The club’s news report did say that more details will be revealed in Dragon Magazine and anime magazines. Central Park Media and FUNimation Entertainment both released the three previous Slayers television series in English in North America.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-02-27/new-slayers-tv-anime-series-in-the-works

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Now playing: Opie and Anthony – O&A 02-27-08
via FoxyTunes

The promotional cover wrapper on the 14th and final volume (released on Wednesday) of Yasuhiro Nightow‘s Trigun Maximum manga has revealed a 2009 opening for the previously announced Trigun theatrical animation project. The tentatively titled “Trigun the Movie” project will feature a completely original story from Nightow and Trigun series director Satoshi Nishimura (Hajime no Ippo/Fighting Spirit, Shin Cho Bakumatsu Shonen Seiki Takamaru), as well as a script by Yasuko Kobayashi (Claymore, Shakugan no Shana, Witchblade anime). Takahiro Yoshimatsu (Jubei-chan – Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch, Ninja Scroll series) will return from the Trigun television series to design the characters that Madhouse will animate. The manga’s cover wrapper indicates the story will be about “Vash vs. Wolfwood,” the two main characters of the popular manga.

The possibility of a Trigun movie first arose over two years ago in an interview with Madhouse founder Masao Maruyama and later at Tokyo Anime Fair 2006.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-02-27/animated-trigun-the-movie-planned-for-2009-in-japan

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Now playing: Opie and Anthony – O&A 02-27-08
via FoxyTunes

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

After once acquiring the rights to produce an American live action adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga series Akira then letting those rights expire, Warner Bros. has re-acquired adaptation rights, this time in conjunction with Legendary Pictures, the studio behind 300, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s film production company Appian Way. According to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety Magazine, first time feature film director Ruairi Robinson has been hired to helm the production of two live action Akira movies that will cover the first and second half of the Akira manga story. Relative newcomer screenwriter Gary Whitta will write the films. Leonardo DiCaprio will reportedly serve as one of several producers.

The setting of the movies will be changed from Neo-Tokyo to “New Manhattan.”

The first film is tentatively scheduled for theatrical release in the summer of 2009.

http://www.animenation.net/news/index.php?id=12146

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.

Firmafest writes to let us know that ‘DVD Jon’ Lech Johansen’s company has released an open beta of DoubleTwist, a desktop application that allows the user to copy media to any device. There’s a Facebook app too. The software is available for download at Doubletwistventures.com. Currently only Windows is supported, but a Macintosh version is on the way.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/19/2022246&from=rss

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• Tommy cooper collapsed from a massive heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act, on the popular itv variety show, live from her majesty’s. at first the audience assumed he was joking.
• Jon-erik hexum, an american television actor, died after he shot himself in the head with a prop gun during a break in filming. hexum apparently did not realize that blanks use paper or plastic wadding to seal gun powder into the shell, and that this wadding is propelled out of the barrel of the gun with enough force to cause severe injury or death if the weapon is fired at point-blank range.

Natural disasters in 1984

• Carolinas Tornado Outbreak
• Late November 1984 Nor’easter

People who died on April 24 (various years)

• 2006 – Brian Labone, English footballer
• 2006 – Moshe Teitelbaum, Hassidic rabbi
• 2006 – Steve Stavro, Canadian businessman and sports team owner
• 2005 – Fei Xiaotong, Chinese sociologist
• 2005 – Ezer Weizman, President of Israel
• 2004 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur
• 2001 – Leon Sullivan, African-American civil rights leader and pastor
• 2001 – Al Hibbler, American singer
• 1997 – Eugene Stoner, American engineer and weapons designer
• 1997 – Pat Paulsen, American comedian and politician
• 1993 – Oliver Tambo, South African activist and politician
• 1986 – Wallis Simpson, American wife of Edward, Duke of Windsor
• 1982 – Ville Ritola, Finnish athlete
• 1980 – Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer
• 1975 – Pete Ham, Welsh musician and frontman of Badfinger
• 1974 – Bud Abbott, American actor and comedian
• 1967 – Vladimir Komarov, cosmonaut
• 1965 – Louise Dresser, American actress
• 1964 – Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined)
• 1960 – Max von Laue, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1947 – Hans Biebow, German war criminal
• 1947 – Willa Cather, American writer
• 1945 – Ernst-Robert Grawitz, German physician
• 1944 – William Stephens, U.S. political figure
• 1942 – Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author
• 1942 – Karin Boye, Swedish author
• 1939 – Louis Trousselier, French cyclist
• 1938 – George Grey Barnard, American sculptor
• 1924 – G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist
• 1891 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal
• 1852 – Vasily Zhukovsky, Russian poet
• 1779 – Eleazar Wheelock, American founder of Dartmouth College
• 1736 – Prince Eugene of Savoy, French-born Austrian general
• 1731 – Daniel Defoe, English writer
• 1656 – Thomas Fincke, Danish mathematician and physicist
• 1622 – Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Swiss friar, martyr, and saint
• 1342 – Pope Benedict XII
• 1338 – Marquis Theodore I of Montferrat
• 709 – Wilfrid, English archbishop and saint
• 624 – Mellitus, third Archbishop of Canterbury

Approximately 141,850 people died worldwide on April 24, 1984

http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/death?dob=1984-04-24