Search Results for: Alan Day

Mickey Mouse’s days at Disney could be numbered and paying royalties for warbling George Gershwin tunes could become a thing of the past if the U.S. Supreme Court sides with an Internet publisher in a landmark copyright case this week. The high court will hear the case Wednesday that could plunge the earliest images of Disney’s mascot and other closely held creative property into the public domain as early as next year. If upheld, the precedent-setting challenge could cost movie studios and heirs of authors and composers millions of dollars in revenue as previously protected material becomes available free of… Read more »

Record labels and artists were out in force Thursday to reiterate their blunt assessment of digital piracy’s effects on their financial well-being at a state government hearing in Sacramento. “I would like to begin with a simple proposition,” said Recording Industry Assn. of America president Cary Sherman. “The one-two punch of physical and digital piracy is threatening the livelihood of the music industry.” The hearing, convened by the California State Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism & Internet Media, was the second piracy gripefest in as many weeks for the industry, which is increasingly turning to the government for… Read more »

The five major record label groups and the three largest music retailers have agreed to pay $143 million in cash and CDs to resolve a long-standing class action price-fixing case. The settlement, announced Monday, brings to a close allegations that the major labels and retailers had violated antitrust laws and illegally inflated the cost of CDs. At issue was a policy called “minimum advertised pricing,” or MAP, under which the major labels would jointly pay for advertising if a retailer agreed to sell CDs above a certain price. This pricing practice began nearly a decade ago as a way for… Read more »

*NSYNC singer Justin Timberlake-who is prepping for the November 5 release of his debut solo album, Justified-recently admitted that he performed oral sex on his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears. The pop singer made the admission while visiting New York radio hosts Star And Buc Wild during the WQHT-FM morning show on Monday (September 23). Timberlake was pressed into making the admission after Star offered to provide the singer’s latest single, “Like I Love You” featuring Clipse, with 30 additional spins a week in exchange. When asked if he performed oral sex on Spears, Timberlake begrudgingly responded, “OK, I did it…I’m in… Read more »

Three girls with three different personalities, giving three dimensions to the group, all coming at you on wax. That’s the way Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes perceived herself and friends Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, and that’s how she conceived the title of TLC’s fourth album, 3D. On Friday (September 13), Arista Records previewed tracks from the LP, which is due on November 12. Completing the album, which was unfinished when Left Eye was killed in April, was an emotional task for T-Boz and Chilli. “We promised to deliver the album, but it was a little bit of lip… Read more »

Terrorism struck the United States on a Tuesday, the day labels release albums, and that day had its share of potential blockbusters: Jay-Z, Bob Dylan and Mariah Carey were among the artists who released records on September 11, 2001. The first anniversary of the attacks, by contrast, will pass quietly in the nation’s record stores, with no big-name releases hitting shelves this week and retailers predicting that new records will be the furthest thing from fans’ minds. “It just seems to be in bad taste,” said bassist Joe Escalante of veteran punk band the Vandals, who chose a September 17… Read more »

Jackson Browne has spent a fair amount of the past several years trying to heed his own advice and take it easy. He’s still got a world of trouble on his mind, dismayed by the poverty and politics of the United States, concerned about his relationships with friends and family. But he is also full of enthusiasm for, among other things, the band he is on the road again with this summer and for Spain, a country he reckons has found the secret of life. This fall Browne will release his first album since 1996, titled “The Naked Ride Home.”… Read more »

A DVD chronicling the life of the late Drowning Pool frontman Dave Williams is in the works, and it may also aid in the realization of one of his longtime ambitions. The as-yet-untitled project was conceived on Saturday, according to the band’s publicist, a day before a public funeral for Williams, who died Wednesday (August 14), was held in Plano, Texas. Although it’s still in the very formative stages, the video is expected to provide glimpses into Williams’ life, from his early days spent gigging around the local Dallas rock scene to the dizzying career momentum that came with selling… Read more »

When Justin Timberlake’s solo debut, Justified, drops November 12, it may bring an end to the days when he harmonized with his ‘NSYNC brethren on songs written by Swedish songwriting teams. Although Timberlake isn’t permanently parting company with JC, Lance, Chris and Joey, his first crack at going it alone was nevertheless liberating. Free from his ties to Max Martin, Kristian Lundin and the like, whose songs dominated much of ‘NSYNC’s 1998 eponymous debut and 2000’s No Strings Attached, Timberlake co-wrote all of Justified, including the LP’s first single, “Like I Love You,” a track co-written and produced by the… Read more »

U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to go after Internet users who download unauthorized songs and other copyrighted material, raising the possibility of jail time for digital-music fans. In a July 25 letter released late Thursday, some 19 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle asked Ashcroft to prosecute “peer-to-peer” networks like Kazaa and Morpheus and the users who swap digital songs, video clips and other files without permission from artists or their record labels. The Justice Department should also devote more resources to policing online copyrights, the lawmakers said in their letter. “Such an effort is increasingly… Read more »