Yes, really. Heather the former music major (trumpet - betcha didn't know that) has made some serious noise in her band career. At the expense of others! Just look what Walter from Overlawyered has to bring us today.

Not so in the European Union, where a newly promulgated rule "reduces the allowable sound exposure in the European orchestral workplace from the present 90 decibels to 85. The problem is, a symphony orchestra playing full-out can easily reach 96 to 98 decibels, and certain brass and percussion instruments have registered 130 to 140 at close range."

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And in entertainment news:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The creators of the video game series "Grand Theft Auto" want a federal judge to dismiss a $246 million lawsuit filed by the families of two people shot by teenagers.

Rockstar Games and its New York City-based parent, Take-Two Interactive Software, said the victims' families were trying to hold them liable "based on the expressive content of the video game."

Retailer Wal-Mart and marketer Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., are also named in the lawsuit.

Aaron Hamel, 45, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, was seriously wounded when their cars were hit June 25 by .22-caliber bullets while driving along Interstate 40.

Stepbrothers William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, were sentenced in August to an indefinite term after pleading guilty in juvenile court to reckless homicide, endangerment and assault.

The boys told investigators they got the rifles from a locked room in their home and decided to randomly shoot at tractor-trailer rigs, just like in the video game "Grand Theft Auto III."

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Waaaaa

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union asked the federal courts Tuesday to prevent the U.S. Secret Service from keeping anti-Bush protesters far away from presidential appearances while allowing supporters to display their messages up close.

The civil liberties group filed the lawsuit in federal court in Pennsylvania on behalf of four advocacy organizations that claimed that the Secret Service forced them into protest zones or other areas where they could not be seen by President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney or be noticed by the media covering their visits.

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Yesterday, Overlawyered posted Monsanto vs. Free Speech and has this to say about its title.

The giant chemical and agribusiness company is suing the Oakhurst Dairy in Maine "for promoting its products as containing milk from cows who are not treated with artificial growth hormones. Monsanto, which makes the leading artificial hormone for cows, said the marketing implies that there's something wrong with milk from treated cows, even though studies show the milk is no different than milk from untreated cows." (Edward D. Murphy, "On the front lines of free speech", Portland Press Herald, Aug. 31; Kristen Philipkosky, "Sour Grapes over Milk Labeling", Wired News, Sept. 16). As the Press-Herald's Murphy suggests, this kind of suit can work very similarly to one like Nike v. Kasky in chilling controversial business speech, the difference being that in this case one business is doing it to another.

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