Pirate Act to Take Senate Floor, Again

Suit says she suffered emotional distress

(NEWSER) - An Illinois woman who spent 2 days in jail for taping part of Twilight: New Moon is suing the movie theater that ratted her out. Samantha Tumpach, 22, says she wasn’t trying to pirate the movie; she was out celebrating with friends, and the video she shot was primarily of them. She trained her camera on the screen only twice before the usher spotted her—both times to catch her “favorite actor taking his shirt off,” according to the suit. More»

Feds reviewing request by Orrin Hatch for antitrust inquiry

(NEWSER) - Trouble for the BCS? The Justice Department says it's considering opening an investigation into the legality of college football's system of picking a champion. In a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch—he hates the BCS because he says it gives an unfair advantage, and thus a ton of money, to big conferences—the department says it's reviewing whether to open an antitrust investigation, along with a host of less-drastic options. More»

Not so fast, say top senators as White House pushes ahead

(NEWSER) - President Obama's elite advisers poured onto the Sunday shows to beat the health reform drum today—and ran right into a wall of Republicans, euphoric from Tuesday's victory in Massachusetts. Even as David Axelrod emphasized that Americans "want Brown to work with us and not be obstructionist," GOP leaders from Mitch McConnell to Orrin Hatch to John McCain had a singular message for the left: Start over. Snippets: More»

The copyright arguments aren't going to stop until the day music dies

(NEWSER) - The music industry wants royalties for the 30-second previews on iTunes—which is "bullshit," writes Nicholas DeLeon for TechGear. It's yet another foolish move in the battle to save the music industry, complains DeLeon. Luckily, he has a "foolproof" way to do just that: Ban music, "shut the whole damn industry down," send iPods to the bottom of the sea, and outlaw whistling. More»

(NEWSER) - A Boston graduate student must pay $675,000 to the music industry for illegally downloading 30 songs, a federal jury ordered today. Joel Tenenbaum, 25, essentially admitted yesterday to grabbing the music via file-sharing network KaZaA. The fine averages out to $22,500 per song—significantly less than the $80,000 the recording industry won in a Minnesota trial last month, Ars Technica reports. More»