A drummer who spent four years in one of the greatest punk bands of all time, The Ramones, filed a federal lawsuit Friday claiming he is owed nearly US$1 million in royalties on songs sold over the Internet.
Richard "Richie Ramone" Reinhardt, who performed with the Ramones between 1983 and 1987, sued Wal-Mart, Apple, RealNetworks, the band's management and the estate of its lead guitarist, claiming he had never fully signed over the rights to the six songs he wrote for the group.
Specifically, Reinhardt said there was never any written deal authorizing the sale of those songs digitally. He said he is owed at least US$900,000 in royalties, and asked the court to issue an injunction preventing further use of his compositions without permission.
PHOTO: AP
Along with the digital music stores, the lawsuit names a pair of production companies associated with the band and the estate of guitarist John Cummings, who performed under the name Johnny Ramone.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart declined to comment. Officials at Apple and RealNetworks did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the lawsuit. Ira Herzog, a longtime business affairs representative for the Ramones, did not immediately return a phone message.
The Ramones helped define punk after forming their band in New York in 1974. They performed for 22 years, with various members, before their last show in 1996.
PHOTO: AP
Three of the group's founding members, Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee, have died in recent years. The original drummer, Tommy, became a producer for the band and was replaced by Marky Ramone. Reinhardt took over on drums during a Marky hiatus in the 1980s.
His six songs for the Ramones were Smash You, Somebody Put Something in My Drink, Human Kind, I'm Not Jesus, I Know Better Now and (You) Can't Say Something Nice.
In another legal case involving a musician, two dogs found buried at a home belonging to rapper DMX had serious wounds, authorities investigating animal neglect allegations said.
One of the dogs had serious bite wounds and another had trauma to its abdomen, but exact causes of death were not determined, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Saturday. A third dog carcass had been burned so badly an exam was inconclusive.
The remains were dug up on Aug. 24, when sheriff's investigators probing allegations of animal neglect raided the rapper's home in north Phoenix.
Authorities also seized 12 live pit bulls, numerous weapons, and about 7 milligrams of marijuana in a bedroom, Arpaio said. The sheriff initially said a quarter-kilogram of suspected narcotics was found, but tests showed the substance was not illegal drugs.
No charges had been filed against the rapper or anyone else, but Arpaio said that may change.
"Someone's going to have to pay for this," the sheriff said. "We have 12 dogs who were abused and three dogs buried in the yard - someone's going to have to pay."
A lawyer for the 36-year-old rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, has said DMX was not at the home during the raid, had not been there for months and was paying caretakers and veterinarians to care for his animals.
Murray Richman on Saturday questioned how the sheriff could connect his client to any alleged animal abuse.
"How do you attribute activities to a person who has not been there, when they have knowledge that other persons have been," Richman said. "Is it because of the celebrity nature?"
In 2002, DMX pleaded guilty to animal-cruelty charges, after authorities found 14 apparently neglected pit bulls at his New Jersey home. He was fined and ordered to do animal-cruelty ads for community service.
Salma Hayek and her fiance, businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, are parents of a baby girl.
The birth of the couple's daughter, Valentina Paloma Pinault, was announced Friday by the actress' publicist.
"Mother and child are doing well," publicist Cari Ross said in a statement.
The Mexico-born Hayek, 41, has starred in films such as Frida, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over and After the Sunset. She is one of the executive producers of the ABC network's Ugly Betty and the chief executive of Ventanazul, a production company she formed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated