» A new bill passed in the senate will create a Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. The RIAA, unsurprisingly, is in favor of the bill, which is yet to be passed by the house. The commerce and justice departments think that this creates unnecessary bureaucracy. They got a creepy enough name.

» Stereophonics accidentally got in a two mile police chase, because their bus driver would not pull over when Canadian borderfolks tried to pull him over.

» The owner of Muxtape has posted about his confusing dealings with the labels. He says that labels whose parent companies were bugged by his service generally wanted to get their bands on it. He also states that he's found that the labels know more about their business than most give them credit for. More: Muxtape then returns in name, as a different service.

» The majors have put their support behind a new sort of hard copy, slotMusic, which is a new music format that puts music onto microSD cards. The cards store up to a gigabyte, and will not have DRM. The files will be high quality mp3 files which can be played on cell phones, mp3 players and the like. The format will also have the ability to store liner notes, album covers and videos. The official rundown.

» The Rest, in short: Jenny Lewis in Rolling Stone: "I write a lot in public bathrooms."; Nick Cave set to release second novel; Pandora releases a new ad system for its iPhone-based software; Walmart discontinues running its DRM servers, making all of its customers without music; The Killers install some killer sax solos on their new record; US hip hop festival Rock the Bells heads to Europe; Britain entertains idea of iPod tax further; Kanye West will be making a Muppets like hip hop show, which may make its way to the US.

» Obits, in short: Dummer Earl Palmer, 84.