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And the hip hop posts continue…

This is the video for Jay-Z’s new single “Blue Magic”, directed by Hype Williams. And the song is from his new album, American Gangster, which is out next month to coincide with the film of the same name.

I’m still undecided about whether I like this track or not.

Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement in the nation’s first file-sharing case to go before a jury.

Twelve jurors here said the Minnesota woman must pay $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs that were the subject of the lawsuit, amounting to $222,000 in penalties.

They could have dinged her for up to $3.6 million in damages, or awarded as little as $18,000. She was found liable for infringing songs from bands such as Journey, Green Day, Aerosmith and others.

After the verdict was read, Thomas and her attorney left the courthouse without comment. The jurors also declined to talk to reporters.

The verdict, coming after two days of testimony and about five hours of deliberations, was a mixed victory for the RIAA, which has brought more than 20,000 lawsuits in the last four years as part of its zero-tolerance policy against pirating. The outcome is likely to embolden the RIAA, which began targeting individuals in lawsuits after concluding the legal system could not keep pace with the ever growing number of file-sharing sites and services.

“This is what can happen if you don’t settle,” RIAA attorney Richard Gabriel told reporters outside the courthouse. “I think we have sent a message we are willing to go to trial.”

Still, it’s unlikely the RIAA’s courtroom victory will translate into a financial windfall or stop piracy, which the industry claims costs it billions in lost sales. Despite the thousands of lawsuits — the majority of them settling while others have been dismissed or are pending — the RIAA’s litigation war on internet piracy has neither dented illegal, peer-to-peer file sharing or put much fear in the hearts of music swappers.

According to BigChampagne, an online measuring service, the number of peer-to-peer users unlawfully trading goods has nearly tripled since 2003, when the RIAA began legal onslaught targeting individuals.

At the time, BigChampagne says, there were about 3.8 million file sharers trading over the internet at a given moment. Now, the group has measured a record 9 million users trading at the same time. Roughly 70 percent of trading involves digital music, according to BigChampagne.

The case, however, did set legal precedents favoring the industry.

In proving liability, the industry did not have to demonstrate that the defendant’s computer had a file-sharing program installed at the time that they inspected her hard drive. And the RIAA did not have to show that the defendant was at the keyboard when RIAA investigators accessed Thomas’ share folder.

Also, the judge in the case ruled that jurors may find copyright infringement liability against somebody solely for sharing files on the internet. The RIAA did not have to prove that others downloaded the files. That was a big bone of contention that U.S. District Judge Michael Davis settled in favor of the industry.

Thomas, 30, maintained that she was not the Kazaa user “Tereastarr,” whose files were detected by RIAA’s investigators. Her attorney speculated to jurors that she could have been the victim of a spoof, cracker, zombie, drone and other attacks.

The jury found her liable after receiving evidence her internet protocol address and cable modem identifier were used to share some 1,700 files. The hard drive linked to Kazaa on Feb. 21, 2005 — the evening in question — did not become evidence in the case.

According to testimony, Thomas replaced her hard drive weeks after RIAA investigators accessed her share file and discovered 1,702 files. The industry sued on just 24 of those files.

Damn.

$220,000 (£110,000?) for 24 songs… I can’t think of 24 songs that I would pay £110,000 for. And I can’t help but feel that fine is a little bit over the top…

Let this be a lesson to you all. If the RIAA come knocking at your door, a) don’t answer, or b) settle - haggle them down, but when they say “court or settlement” take the damn settlement.

£110,000 for 24 songs… That’s like the most expensive double disc album in history.

:/

The Growth is coming…

After years of frustration and delays towards a sophomore album, Joe Budden has finally managed to free himself from the shackles of Def Jam. You might remember Joe from “Pump It Up” way back in 2003, and that’s the last time his record label put out any of his material. In fact, it was the “Pump It Up” remix which led to a lot of friction between him and Jay-Z (who later became his boss, and ultimately in control of Budden’s projects…).

But for the rap fans who’ve been keeping an eye on Joe Budden, he’s been the most ‘in form’ rapper for a long while now. Dropping constant and consistent lyrical excellence, and creating original records like no other. The Growth was supposed to be around in 2005, then it was supposed to come mid-2006, and then early 2007… here we are approaching 2008 and it’s been 5 years since Joey sold 500,000 copies of his self-titled debut album. It’s been a long ass time to hear his new material.

Hopefully Joe can get himself a new record deal (even if its Koch) because hip hop needs Joe Budden and he’s as promising for the future of the genre as Lupe, Termanology, Papoose, Saigon or any of the new breed of rappers. Seriously. For those that don’t know check out “3 Sides to a Story”, “Dumb Out”, “Whatever It Takes”… hell… just go download his Mood Muzik 2 mixtape. It shits on 99% of retail albums out in the past few years.

It’s… It’s… It’s that on top music!! ‘The Growth’ will be worth the wait, mark my words.

What the hell? This is the same dude who dropped “Learn Chinese”? The battle-turned-gimmick rapper? Sit him down with DJ Premier and he drops one of the best tracks of the year. Oh Premo, you never fail to impress…

Jin - World Premier:

DJ Premier knows his shit. So when he sets up his own record label to release music you know it’s going to be decent hip hop. Here is the first album to be released on the aforementioned ‘Year Round’ record imprint. And Premo produces a fair few joints on the LP. This is “Welcome to G-Dom” from the very unknown NYG’z.

Download: http://rapidshare.com/files/60313338/NYGz-.rar

NYG’z stands for New York Giants, but obviously due to the NFL team of the same name they can’t use that name to sell records. That’s about all I can tell you about the NYG’z really. Metal Lungies.com wrote a pretty decent review about this album over on their blog, so go read that too.

It’s that time of year again, with the new football season having been underway for a couple of months the PC/Video games start to follow. October is usually littered with the releases of the FIFA, Pro Evo and Football Manager series. The demos of Fifa ‘08 and PES ‘08 have been floating around for a while, but today sees the release of the trial of the new FM. Possibly the most addictive brand of games I’ve ever played in my life. The people behind Football Manager have taken months of my life away from me… with my co-operation of course.

What’s new for Football Manager ‘08? Well, in all honesty, not a lot. The groundsman asks you about the size of the pitch… errrr… that’s about it really. But then there’s been nothing significant added to the series for years now, but its still as addictive as ever. They can’t really add any new leagues, hell they’ve got everything from Singapore/Thailand to every single European league… Mind you, they definitely could have revamped the media interaction. I’m sick of having the same 5 answers to every single question.

Anyway… make your mind up for yourself. The demo allows you to play the first 6 months of the game in a number of leagues. Check it out, head over to sigames.com