Fearing that the music industry is overstepping its bounds in the hunt for online music pirates, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman of Minnesota on Thursday requested copies of the more than 900 subpoenas issued by the industry's trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America.

"The industry has legitimate concerns about copyright infringement," Coleman said in a statement. "We are dealing with stealing recording artists' songs and the industry's profits. ... Yet, the industry seems to have adopted a 'shotgun' approach that could potentially cause injury and harm to innocent people who may have simply been victims of circumstance or [who don't know] the rules related to digital sharing of files."

Hundreds of subpoenas have been issued to Internet Service Providers and universities in an attempt to get the names of file traders the RIAA suspects are illegally swapping music files. The RIAA has announced that it intends to file suit as early as this month against individuals offering "substantial" amounts of copyrighted music online, with penalties for each violation potentially ranging from $750 to $150,000 per song.

Coleman, chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, requested copies of all the subpoenas by August 14. He also asked for a description of the standards the RIAA use to file an application for a subpoena as well as details of how the group is collecting evidence against alleged file swappers. Coleman said he would like to see proof that the RIAA is protecting privacy and shielding people from erroneous subpoenas.

The senator's action was spurred in part, he said, by media reports of the RIAA targeting family members and roommates whose computers were unwittingly used to share files, and a grandparent who is facing $45 million in penalties for downloading his "oldies favorites."

Coleman, who has admitted to using Napster in the past, said his other concern was how the blizzard of lawsuits will affect the District Court in Washington, D.C., where clerks have already been reassigned to handle the mountain of paperwork.

"We will be pleased to respond to the senator's request for information," the RIAA said in a statement. "It will confirm that our actions are entirely consistent with the law as enacted by the U.S. Congress and interpreted by the courts. It will demonstrate that our enforcement program, one part of a multi-pronged strategy, is an appropriate and measured response to the very serious problem of blatant copyright infringement confronting the entire music community."

The RIAA statement also said that the number of songs listed in a subpoena does not reflect the actual number of files illegally distributed by that user, and that regardless of the amount that copyright law allows, the RIAA will ask the court to determine the appropriate amount of damages.

On Wednesday, the country's largest provider of DSL Internet service, SBC Communications, filed suit against the RIAA in San Francisco's Federal District Court. "We think their misapplication of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) subpoena powers in this case pose a serious threat to the privacy of our customers," said SBC spokesperson Larry Meyer, whose company has nearly 3 million DSL subscribers.

More than 200 of SBC's customers have been targeted by the subpoenas so far, he said. The subpoenas request that SBC go through its records and give up the identities of the targeted swappers, who are identified only by their screen names or Internet addresses.

In a statement, the RIAA said the issues SBC is raising — the "overly broad" nature of the subpoenas and the legitimacy of filing them in Washington and not California — have already been rejected twice in federal court during previous actions by other ISPs.

"It's unfortunate that they have chosen to litigate this, unlike every other ISP which has complied with their obligations under the law," read the RIAA statement. "We had previously reached out to SBC to discuss this matter but had been rebuked. This procedural gambit will not ultimately change the underlying fact that when individuals engage in copyright infringement on the Internet, they are not anonymous and service providers must reveal who they are."

SBC's Meyer denied that the company had rejected the RIAA's efforts to discuss the issue but said he could not elaborate. The company is seeking a jury trial to resolve the dispute.
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Ludacris is putting more money into his next album — money, as in 50 Cent and Chingy. "The 50 Cent track is ridiculous," Ludacris said Wednesday of the latest addition to Chicken & Beer, a track called "Blow It Out Your Ass." "What more can you expect from Luda and 50 on a song. I don't need to say anything about that song, man. You just gotta wait to hear it."

As for the collaboration with his protégé Chingy, the track is called "We Got Guns" and also features Disturbing Tha Peace members I-20 and Tity Boi. "It's real street, it's a good song," Chingy said.

Although Ludacris promised at the BET Awards that Chicken & Beer would drop on September 30, it has now been pushed back a week to October 7. The first single, "Stand Up," is just being leaked to radio stations. "This is gonna be the DJ record of the year," Ludacris said on the set of Chingy's "Holidae In" video. "It's straight for the DJs, it's straight for the club, for the party."

Luda shot the video Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles with Dave Meyers, the director behind Missy Elliott's "Work It" video, which garnered multiple MTV Video Music Award nominations. In the imaginative piece, Ludacris finds himself in the middle of a hot, sweaty and surreal nightclub. As he enters, hallucinations abound: an iced-out midget dangles from Luda's neck, he sees his face on a million-dollar bill and he's able to turn a model-skinny hottie into a thick, sexy Southern girl by giving her a kiss. Later, Luda transforms into a baby hitting on a sexy nanny.

"All I can say is just expect the unexpected," the rapper said. "It's gonna be wild, of course the same wild Ludacris, but we taking it an extra step. Always reinventing myself."

Along with 50 and DTP, Chicken & Beer will feature appearances by Snoop Dogg, Scarface and 8Ball and MJG. "Versatility, every kind of flow, every subject matter," Ludacris explained of the project. "It's one of those albums you can hear all the way through, and that's what's important to me, not that people skip around on it, but that they can listen from [track] one all the way to the end and that they love it."

Lyrically, the album will tell Luda's story, from his days rapping in his high school halls to recent times, running his own label and starring in blockbuster movies.

"Rap, to me, is all about emotion," he said. "So you talk about the good times, the bad times, you're gonna hear it all, man, things you wouldn't expect. I talk about hard times, 'cause people really wouldn't expect me to talk about hard times or say that I don't have any hard times, but I definitely do." Source: MTV
Jam Master Jay, who was born Jason Mizell, had a gun on him the day he was murdered, according to a jailhouse informant. Ronald "Tinard" Washington, a long time friend of Jam Master Jay, who is presently incarcerated for robbing a hotel clerk in Floral Park, Long Island, told New York's Daily News that he saw his friend before he was killed on October 30, 2002 and that Jam Master Jay had a .45 caliber gun.

Washington explained, "That was the first time I ever saw Jay with a gun. He was scared. He didn't say it, but I know Jay. He was scared." Police would not confirm if a weapon was recovered at the murder scene but they did confirm that two .45 caliber shells were found in the studio lounge where the Run-DMC deejay was killed. Washington maintains that Jam Master Jay gave him $200 to buy ammo for his .45 caliber gun just hours before he was killed.

Washington also made the startling revelation that he knows who killed Jam Master Jay. The names of the suspect were not released but Washington told authorities that when he returned to the studio to give Jam Master Jay the ammo there was a husky man and his son present. A few minutes later he heard gunshots.

Police aren't sure how credible Washington's account of that night is because circumstances that led authorities to suspect Washington of being the killer's lookout.

Jam Master Jay's mother, Connie Mizell, also believes something was going on in her son's life the night he was killed, saying, "A lot of things I hear now make me think something was going on in his life that bothered him. There is no way for us to know if he was threatened or afraid. If he thought someone was trying to kill him, he never would have told us, the family. He never would have said something that would have frightened me."
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