I got some great news a few days ago and was sworn to uphold a code of secrecy on the matter. For the last several years, my friend Ali Spagnola has been embroiled in a long and nasty legal battle over the name of her drinking game/album, the Power Hour. Well, the courts finally came down with a decision, and ruled in Ali's favor. Yay!
That would be cool enough on its own, but Ali's chosen method of celebrating makes it even more awesome. She's running an Indiegogo campaign to fund a Power Hour tour, and she has made her whole Power Hour album $0.99 on Amazon's MP3 store. As a major supporter of lowering the barrier to entry by lowering or eliminating prices, I think this is a great move on her part.
Part of her campaign makes it cheap to try out the rest of her body of work, too. She has recorded three other albums over the years and you can get digital downloads of all four of them by kicking in $15 to her campaign, and by donating anything, you're casting a vote for your city to be part of the tour. Not such a bad way to celebrate a victory.
The core of Ali's battle was over a trademark dispute; specifically, a trademark bully was giving all sorts of people grief over the term Power Hour, and Ali wouldn't stand for it. He was getting her album removed from Amazon, her videos from YouTube, and there didn't seem to be much of anything she could do about it, except to go to court and spend insane amounts of money fighting a battle with no end in sight. Her ultimate victory is great news for anyone, musician or writer, who could use a little inspiration and hope in the face of trademark bullies.
Congratulations, Ali!