Culture

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed 757 lawsuits against people who they alleged illegally shared music online. The vast majority of the lawsuits, 693, are against people who used peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as eDonkey and LimeWire to exchange music files. Of the remaining lawsuits, 64 are against students at 17 different universities who used the Abilene Network and a peer-to-peer file sharing program called i2hub. The i2hub program is designed for use in sharing files over the Abilene Network. The Ab

The US Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah is looking for a subcontractor to produce the anthrax bacillus anthracis Sterne strain in 1,500 litre quantities. The Sterne strain is not thought to be harmful to humans, but the intended use of the anthrax remains unclear, worrying anti-biological weapons activists. Other recent Dugway contracts for equipment to produce unspecified biolgical agents in 3,000 litre batches are even more concerning to activists. The contracts were uncovered by The Sunshine Project, a group opposed to biological weap

Warner Music agreed on Tuesday to license its music videos to MTV for use on devices such as cell phones and other devices. This deal is said to help the recording industry to gain more revenue, despite declining CD sales. The cost of the deal was not disclosed. MTV plans to distribute these music videos as short segments and, in the future, offer full-length videos as part of a subscription. In addition, MTV wishes to use these videos in programs similar to VH1's Driven. Pricing is not available yet. Warner Music is the first label to licens

Wireless provider Sprint announced today, that they would be working with RealNetworks to launch a streaming music service, for Sprint wireless customers, called Rhapsody Radio. The service will allow users to listen to podcasts and six streaming radio stations (rap, hip-hop hits, alternative, country, '70s, and music news) from their mobile phone. Users will be able to listen to live broadcasts of those stations over their cellular connection. For a monthly subscription fee of $6.95, users will also have unlimited access to commercial-free ra

Holocaust survivor and famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, founder of the center that bears his name, has passed away this morning at his home in Vienna, Austria. He was 96. Wiesenthal was born December 31, 1908 in Buchach, then part of Austria-Hungary, and studied in Prague. He settled in Poland and was forced to work in a factory after the Soviet Union had invaded Poland, following the Hitler-Stalin pact. When the Germans then turned on the Soviet Union in 1941, Wiesenthal was caught and interned in several concentration camps. He was liber

North Korea has again agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons and development programs. The country agreed to again return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and follow International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. Five other countries have agreed to give North Korea energy assistance. There also would be discussion "at an appropriate time" about providing a civilian light-water reactor. The day after the agreement, North Korea demanded the new reactor before it ends its other nuclear programs. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

On Friday, all six major American television networks; ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, WB, and UPN, along with most PBS stations, united in a rare show of solidarity to air a one hour charity concert called Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast. The concert aired live at 8pm in the Eastern time zone and 7pm in the Central time zone and on tape-delay in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. It was also shown on the Internet and many cable networks such as USA, Bravo and G4. The show was produced by Joel Gallen, the same man behind the Septem

Due to a growing US Hispanic population, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) announced that all primetime shows in their upcoming lineup will be closed captioned in both English and Spanish. In addition, four of the shows, as well as many theatrically-released films and other specials, will be dubbed in Spanish. The move was a major one for ABC. Previously, only the Hispanic comedy The George Lopez Show was captioned and dubbed in Spanish. "We wanted to move beyond toe-dipping and really dive in," said Stephen McPherson, ABC entertainme

After a year-long investigation, a committee has found that Kofi Annan, head of the United Nations, failed to halt corruption in the Oil for Food program, which was supposed to provide food to impoverished Iraqi citizens. According to Paul Volcker, head of the Independent Inquiry Committee, "Our assignment has been to look for mis-or mal-administration in the oil-for-food program and for evidence of corruption within the UN organization and by contractors. Unhappily, we found both." The report emphasized that Annan knowingly allowed Saddam

One year ago today, September 7, 2004, the Wikimedia Commons project was presented to the public. Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a repository for multimedia files that include images, videos, computer animations, and music as well as spoken texts. They currently count more than 232,000 such files. All of Commons content is published under a free licence, so the use of its files is permitted outside the project itself. Its main mission is to provide the international Wikipedias with images. Like Wikipedia, the Commons is based on a s

Apple today unveiled its latest addition to the iPod line, the iPod nano. The announcement came today at a special music event hosted by Apple, held in the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco. The iPod Nano comes in two colors, white and black, as well as two sizes, a 2GB and a 4GB, capable of holding 500 and 1,000 songs and will cost $199 and $249 USD respectively. The iPod nano is the second model of the iPod family to utilize flash memory, after the Shuffle was introduced in January. The iPod nano replaces the similar iPod Mini

A fire Monday night in a theatre in Beni Suef, Egypt, has killed at least 32 and injured a similar number. The fire was started during a performance when a candle on the set was knocked over by an actor and the curtains were set alight. The blaze spread to the stage, which was covered in paper, and then quickly engulfed the rest of the building. There was a stampede as the panicking audience of at least 100 rushed for the only available exit door, which was blocked at one point by falling supports as the building slowly burnt. The other exit w