A couple years back a 12-year-old kid got hit just above the heart on the mound with a line drive in a rec league baseball game. The boy’s heart stopped beating and his brain was deprived of oxygen for over 15 minutes, resulting in disastrous bodily harm. Two years later, the family of the wounded child is now suing the bat manufacturer (Hillerich & Bradsby Co., maker of the 31 inch, 19 ounce aluminum Louisville Slugger), Little League Baseball for sanctioning the bat (even though it wasn’t a Little League game) and the Sports Authority for selling the bat at their store.

This is quite the lawsuit. The whole basis of the family’s case is that the bat is unsafe (too light, basically). But the reality is that bats of these whip like caliber have been in use for years on end. In my personal opinion, they are too light, but the durability of aluminum forced out wood bats at the youth league level long ago. Considering these factors, I think this seems to be an unfortunate case of a devastated family that simply is looking for someone to blame for a very tragic accident. This is not Little League’s fault, nor Louisville Slugger’s, nor the sporting goods store.

I do believe that the incredibly lightweight nature of aluminum youth league bats is consistently dangerous (that’s why they changed oz. rules to -3 for high-schools near the millennium), but until parents and leagues are willing to pony up the cash to switch back to wood, aluminum bats will remain what they are.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling may have created the most lovable fantasy characters since The Fraggles (well, I thought they were lovable anyway), but DO NOT FUCK WITH HER. Rowling testified today in a New York City court against a fan who she said committed “wholesale theft” of her intellectual — and extremely profitable — property.

“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling said that Stephen Vander Ark, the author of the Lexicon fan site and a companion book, had, in a way that was “lazy” and “sloppy,” taken from her creations.

“I believe that the book contains wholesale theft of 17 years of my hard work,” she said. “It desecrates what I worked so hard to create.”

Vander Ark is 50 years old, and used to work as a teacher and librarian in Byron Center, MI, before moving to London recently to pursue a career in writing (writing other people’s characters, apparently). Vander Ark even has a fan site dedicated to him. The Web site, Lexicon, was started as a hobby. Vander Ark said that he’d never been contacted regarding the site in the past and had even declined previous offers to turn the Web site into an encyclopedia because he believed it was copyright infringement.

Rowling filed a lawsuit against Vander Ark and his publisher a year ago, and the court battle is expected to last through the week. Sucks to be that guy, I guess. Well, anyway, here are the Fraggles.

Basically a 14 year old boy got his ass beat by some kids who listened to fifty cent. Now he’s suing 50, Universal and anyone who looks at him wrong. Dude I feel the same way. One time I was going for a jog and 50 cent came on and for some reason I had an urge to stab someone. Eventually the song ended and I was not able to find a sharp enough knife, but what if I did? I hate you 50!!!!

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hip hop mogul 50 Cent, Universal Music Group and several of its record labels were sued on Wednesday for promoting a “gangsta lifestyle” by a 14-year-old boy who says friends of the rapper assaulted him.

The lawsuit filed by James Rosemond and his mother, Cynthia Reed, says Universal Music Group — owned by Vivendi SA — and its labels Interscope Records, G-Unit Records and Shady Records, bear responsibility for the assault because they encourage artists to pursue violent, criminal lifestyles.

The lawsuit also names 50 Cent — whose real name is Curtis Jackson — Violator Management, Violator CEO Chris Lighty, Tony Yayo, a rapper and a member of 50 Cent’s G-Unit hip hop group, and Lowell Fletcher, an employee of Yayo.

The “cold prevention” product Airborne has been shown to use false advertising due to a gross lack of supporting research. Basically it’s nothing more than a run-of-the-mill vitamin, and now they’re paying out 23 million plus in a class action lawsuit. What a bunch of bullshit. “Invented by a teacher.” Yeah, so it must be legitimate, because a teacher would never mislead anyone. I feel bad for my grandparents, who always bought it for me when I was home in the hope that it would make me feel better if I was getting sick, which it never did. Anybody who has claimed this bogus product to work can simply thank their mind for enlisting the power of a placebo.

The Romantics, that 80’s band that most people probably either don’t remember or never knew have filed a federal lawsuit against Activision becuase of a “soundalike recording of its 1980 hit What I Like About You on Guitar Hero,”

The song is one of about 30 songs featured on “Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the ’80s.” The band also is seeking an injunction that could take the best-selling game off store shelves - which would be both completely lame and a crime against humanity.

Here’s the part that doesn’t make too much sense - they’re not making a copyright claim. The band’s attorneys told the Detroit Free Press that Activision properly secured permission to use “What I Like About You,” allowing it to record a cover version. So what’s the problem right? They’re saying that “by creating an imitation so much like the Romantics’ original, the California-based company infringed on the group’s rights to its own likeness”.

WTF?

BBC News has reported that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are suing Showtime Network because of their show Californication starring David Duchovny.

The band says the title is “immediately associated in the mind of the consumer” with its 1999 album and single release.

In their defense the makers of the show have stated that they got the title from a 1970s bumper sticker. Maybe Flea and company can work up a class action suit. Read the full story here.