Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana Congressman who's pressuring the BPDG participants to reach "consensus", seems to be a favorite in the other LA.

in his last election in 2000, Big Content was his number-one fan, forking over some $74,000 (no doubt out of admiration for his spirit of public service). Billy's got another date with the voters this November, and Big Content hasn't forgotten their favorite Cajun. they've fattened his coffers with some $32,000 so far.

Bayou politics can get pretty complicated, though, as Billy's critical role in telecommunication and internet-related policy has also placed him on the receiving end of $42K from IT companies.

"Laissez les bon temps roulez!"

Sony's and Universal's plans to offer 99-cent single downloads in Liquid Audio format (whyohwhyohwhy not MP3 -- they were so close to getting this right) looks like a half-step in the right direction. but some artist managers aren't seeing much upside:

"One thing this will do is cut through the hypocrisy by giving people the option of whether they want to buy or steal music," said Burnstein, who along with Peter Mench runs Q-Prime, the agency that represents Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"We won't have to listen to anymore of that b.s. like 'I was forced to download the single because the album had only one good track on it,' " he added. "Now that you can buy your favorite single for 99 cents, what's the argument going to be? We'll get down to the truth, which is: 'I want it free. I'm too cheap to pay 99 cents....Screw the artists.'"

is there some kind of School of Entertainment Stupidity where they teach you to call the people who pay the bills thieves? given that Q-Prime owns 50% of the Volcano Records label (sharing the other half with Zomba, which was recently swallowed by BMG), the rhetoric is sadly predictable.