Search Results for: Thursday

Nearly two years after it sued Napster into submission, the recording industry has discovered it’s not enough to try to beat Internet music purveyors whose digital distribution techniques allow copyright violations. It also has to join them. To discourage piracy, the multibillion-dollar industry has in recent months moved beyond lawsuits against file-swapping services. It has employed hacker tactics to flood such sites with bogus files and even taken to suing students who created mini-Napsters on college networks. At the same time, however, the music labels have finally embraced the very online distribution model many had long resisted, one that analysts… Read more »

While the World Health Organization said that it believes the worst of severe acute respiratory syndrome is over in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam – which got a clean bill of health on Monday for being the first nation to contain the virus – SARS is still affecting tour and promotional plans for many artists who were set to visit those regions. The Rolling Stones were the first to pull out of Asian concerts – their first-ever concerts in China – when news of the disease broke in March, though they did play two shows in Singapore. They also… Read more »

Controversial Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, once famously booed offstage for tearing up the Pope’s picture, declared on Thursday that she’s had it with the music business and with being famous. “As of July 2003, I shall be retiring from the music business order to pursue a different career,” wrote O’Connor – who distinguished herself in the 1990s as much with her shaven head and brash opinions as with her music – on a Web site devoted to all things Sinead, (http://www.sinead-oconnor.com). Although the site is not the official home page for the singer, Lellie Capwell, a spokeswomen for Vanguard Records,… Read more »

A federal judge rejected a constitutional challenge Thursday by Verizon Communications Inc., which is trying to avoid turning over the names of two of its Internet subscribers suspected of illegally offering free music for downloading. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, who ruled against Verizon in January in the same case, determined that First Amendment protections concerning anonymous expression do not conflict with the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The law permits music companies to force Internet providers to turn over the names of suspected music pirates upon subpoena from any U.S. District Court clerk’s office, without a judge’s signature… Read more »

Dixie Chicks’ lead singer Natalie Maines says she spoke against President Bush and war with Iraq last month out of frustration and regrets her choice of words, but she makes no apologies for thinking critically. “I’m not truly embarrassed that, you know, President Bush is from my state, that’s not really what I care about,” Maines says in an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer for “Primetime Thursday,” airing 10 p.m. EDT Thursday. “It was the wrong wording with genuine emotion and questions and concern behind it…. Am I sorry that I asked questions and that I just don’t follow? No.”… Read more »

No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani has been recording solo material while her group has been on break. Stefani said she was not sure how she would place the songs. “I have been collaborating on some tracks on my own with different people. I am not quite sure if it will become a full-blown solo project, singles for a soundtrack, or just songs (like with Moby and Eve),” Stefani said on her band’s website on Thursday (April 17). “I am just kind of letting it take me where it takes me and see what happens.” Stefani also told fans about the progress… Read more »

A jury in Santa Monica, California, has found Tommy Lee not negligent in the death of a 4-year-old boy who drowned during a pool party at his Malibu home in July 2001. “Although I am relieved that the court has found me not negligent, there are no winners in this sad situation,” Lee said in a statement issued late Thursday. The jury of nine women and three men deliberated for an hour on Wednesday and less than two hours on Thursday, according to a court clerk at the Los Angeles Superior Court. The parents of Daniel Karven-Veres had sought millions… Read more »

Seven weeks after heart bypass surgery, doctors cleared Lynyrd Skynyrd founding lead guitarist Gary Rossington to return to touring with the southern rock band starting in June. Rossington, 51, underwent the quintuple bypass surgery Feb. 25 at an Atlanta-area hospital. Band spokesman Lathum Nelson said Thursday in Los Angeles that the cardiologist gave Rossington the green light to return to stage June 13 in Karlsruhe, Germany. “Since his surgery, Gary has done well. However, as expected, he has required a period of rest and rehabilitation,” Dr. Martha Smith said in a statement. The first eight European shows set to begin… Read more »

A jury began deliberating whether to hold rocker Tommy Lee responsible for the death of a 4-year-old boy who drowned during a pool party at the drummer’s home. A 12-member jury met for an hour after closing arguments Wednesday, then adjourned for the evening. They were to resume deliberations Thursday. A lawyer for the boy’s parents told the jury that $10 million would be a suitable damage award. “It would have been so easy for this terrible thing not to take place,” Thomas Girardi said in his closing argument. Daniel Karven-Veres drowned during a birthday party for Lee’s son Brandon… Read more »

Like Steven Segal in 1991, Sharon Osbourne is out for justice. But unlike Gino Felino, the character portrayed by the karate champ turned actor, she’s not looking to settle the dispute that took place in a West Hollywood, California, restaurant last week with martial arts. Neither is she taking the matter to a court of law. Rather, she’s about to bring the case before the court of public opinion. Osbourne is set to appear on the television show “Celebrity Justice” Tuesday (April 15), according to a network spokesperson, to tell her version of how an altercation with a talent agent… Read more »