Jammie Thomas-Rasset to Appeal $1.9 MIllion RIAA Verdict

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, ordered to pay $1.9 million in fines to the RIAA for copyright infringement, will appeal the ruling, according to her lawyer.

This is not surprising, since, once the news of the ruling hit, even those whose songs she downloaded decried the fines as excessive.

"She's not interested in settling," attorney Joe Sibley said in a brief phone interview. "She wants to take the issue up on appeal on the constitutionality of the damages. That's one of the main arguments--that the damages are disproportionate to any actual harm."

Source: news.cnet.com

In 2007, Jammie Thomas-Rasset was fined $220,000 for the same offense, but the ruling was overturned.

Thomas-Rasset's case has already helped set a series of important legal precedents, including establishing that it is sufficient to show that defendants placed files in their P2P shared folder to prove they intended to make the music available across the network. With the case going to the appeals process, there's a good chance it will continue establishing legal parameters.

Source: news.cnet.com

That bit is troubling, since my experience with end users is that, once they press the colorful button on a piece of software, they have no idea where generated files end up. As most P2P software automatically generates share folders, pointing to them and crying "Pirate!" strikes me as willfully ignorant of both software design and user behavior.

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The Fifth Business

Simplicity Crib Recall: Side Cribs & Baby Floats

Simplicity Cribs has issued a recall of more than four million baby floats and 400,000 side cribs. A list of recalled products can be found here.
Simplicity, also sold as Graco, had gone out of business; teh company which purchased Simplicity, SFCA, has also ceased operations.

The inflatable baby floats - shaped like turtles, ducks, power boats and other figures - have been voluntarily pulled by distributor Aqua-Leisure Industries after 31 reports of the seats tearing and dropping youngsters into the water, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. No injuries have been reported.

Source: sun-sentinel.com

However, fatalities have occurred through use of the recalled side cribs:

At least 13 children have tragically died in recalled Simplicity cribs and bassinets. CPSC is urging all parents, caregivers, online sellers and purchasers, daycare providers, and thrift store owners to immediately check if they have one of the following Simplicity-made or Simplicity-branded products and dispose of those units where there is no longer a remedy.

Source: cpsc.gov

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Mos Def'sT-Shirt Record Sales Aren't Counted by Nielsen SoundScan

Mos Def's record sales for The Ecstatic are not record sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Here's the deal: fans can purchase a t-shirt depciting the album cover forMos Def's new album, The Ecstatic, and each shirt comes with a download code for a free copy of the album itself.

This is where it gets complicated, though: while you've just bought the shirt and downloaded the album, which are essentially packaged together, Nielsen SoundScan is not counting it as an album sale.

Each shirt features an album cover on the front and a track list with a special download code on the back. If you buy the shirt, you get the album for free.

Source: gizmodo.com

Basically, Nielsen SoundScan is still thinking in terms of sales of records as standalone entities, which I can understand, since their only experience in the market is cash-for-8-track.tape/CD/iTunes download. However, the industry is changing right in front of Neilsen's eyes, and they don't quite seem to notice: Records are basically free now, whether labels wish it or not. That Mos Def has found a way to monetize his new album anyway should make Nielsen drop what it's doing and pay closer attention, but that's apparently not the case.

"Nielsen Soundscan knows nothing about this and without knowing more, we have no intention of counting units triggered by the sale of a t-shirt," Soundscan representative Anna Solters told Digital Music News on Friday.

Source: digitalmusicnews.com

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Australian PM Kevin Rudd Disses Gordon Ramsay over Tracy Grimshaw

Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay messed with the wrong country: Australia. The Kitchen Nightmares host dissed TV host Tracy Grimshaw, calling her a "pig" and saying that she was a lesbian as he presented at the Melbourne Food and Wine Show. Upon finding out about this, Grimshaw replied that, just becasue she does not find Ramsay attractive, doesn't mean she's a lesbian. The Australian government has her back: Deputy PM Julia Gillard said that Gordon Ramsay should just stay in the kitchen. This went all the way to the top, though, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calling Ramsay "a new form of low-life". 

Ramsay has since stated that his comments were taken out of conext, but Grimshaw insists that Ramsay is a "bully" and an "arrogant narcissist".

Mr Rudd congratulated Grimshaw for giving Ramsay an "uppercut" in responding to his barbs about her looks and her sexuality at a Melbourne food and wine show at the weekend.

Source: news.com.au

Melinda Tankard Reist, of Women's Forum Australia, told Australian newspaper the Herald Sun that Ramsay was "no longer welcome here".

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

While there was no overwhelming community consensus on banning swear words on television as a result of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, there seems to be a growing consensus on Ramsay himself..

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Celebrity Revenge

Rent-a-Princess (thanks, Neatorama!)