Monday, June 18, 2018

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2014Johnny Mann - of The Johnny Mann Singers who recorded with Johnny Burnette, The Crickets, and Eddie Cochran - dies of heart failure at age 85.
2012At a Radiohead concert in a park in Toronto, metal rigging over a stage collapses one hour before show time. Various technicians were setting up the stage equipment when the incident occurred, injuring some and killing one drum technician, Scott Johnson, who was pinned under the rubble.
2011Amy Winehouse, fresh out of rehab, shows up an hour late for a concert in Belgrade, Serbia, stumbles around on stage and can barely sing.
2011Leslie West of Mountain has his right leg amputated below the knee at a Biloxi, Mississippi, hospital the day after performing at the Hard Rock Cafe in the city. West later says, "when I play 'Mississippi Queen' now, I think about Jesus Christ."
2009Hindustani classical musician Ali Akbar Khan dies at age 87 from renal failure.
2008Lil Wayne accomplishes what was believed to be impossible in a post-Napster world, selling more than a million copies of Tha Carter III in a mere seven days.
2007Doo-wop singer Hank Medress (of The Tokens) dies of lung cancer at age 68.
2002Billy Joel checks into an alcohol rehabilitation center in Connecticut for a ten-day stay.
1995Louise Dean (singer for Shiva) dies in a hit-and-run accident at age 24. Shiva's single "Freedom" peaks at #18 on the UK charts shortly after.
1993Lollapalooza 1993 kicks off at Thunderbird Stadium, in Vancouver, BC. The main stage acts include the headliner, Primus, as well as Alice in ChainsDinosaur Jr.FishboneArrested Development, Front 242, Babes in Toyland (first half), Tool (second half), and Rage Against the Machine.
1992Peter Allen, best remembered for his 1972 hit, "I Still Call Australia Home," which soon made its way into commercials for Qantas Airlines, dies at his home in Sydney, struck down with an AIDS-related throat cancer. He was 48 years old.
1988Josh Dun (drummer for Twenty One Pilots) is born in Columbus, Ohio.
1987Bruce Springsteen separates from his wife, actress Julianne Phillips.
1984The Dolly Parton movie Rhinestone is released, featuring Parton as a country singer trying to mentor a New York cabbie played by Sylvester Stallone.
1976ABBA perform for Sweden's king on the eve of his wedding.
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Kazaa User Found Guilty In Landmark Music Sharing Case

2009
Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a 32-year-old woman from Minnesota, is found guilty of illegal sharing of music files via the Internet and is ordered to pay $1.92 million, $80,000 per song.

On the file-sharing platform Kazaa, Thomas-Rasset is better known as Tereastarr. In 2005, she downloaded and distributed a total of 24 songs, including tracks from Green DayGloria Estefan, and Aerosmith, and landed in hot water with several major record labels. Capitol Records offered to settle for $5,000, but Thomas-Rasset refused, insisting she was not the person behind the Tereastarr moniker. Capitol Records, Inc. v. Thomas-Rasset was the country's first file-sharing copyright infringement lawsuit from the major labels to be tried before a jury, which found Thomas-Rasset guilty and liable for statutory damages of $222,000 in 2007. The case also sent a message to other filesharers that the recording industry wasn't willing to turn a blind eye to their activity.

Today, Thomas-Rasset is back for a retrial at the US District Court in Minnesota with a new lawyer and new jury, but the verdict remains the same – mostly. Thomas-Rasset's lead attorney, Kiwi Camara, was hoping to knock the charges down to the legal minimum of $750 per work, but the jury has other ideas, to the tune of $80,000. Multiply that by 24 songs and Thomas-Rasset faces a whopping $1.92 million penalty. 

Cara Duckworth, a spokesperson for the RIAA, tells reporters that the recording industry doesn't want to break anyone and is still willing to settle, but Thomas-Rasset remains unmoved. She's not interested in paying a settlement or anything at all. Of the $1.92 million, she says, "Good luck trying to get it from me... it's like squeezing blood from a turnip."

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