Zappa Fest Descends on German Town

Living in communist East Germany, Wolfhard Kutz used all kinds of schemes to smuggle in his beloved Frank Zappa records: secretive rendezvous with West Germans at highway rest stops. Hidden compartments in his car doors. Accomplices who sneaked albums across borders.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Kutz could pursue his passion openly, and created a fan club: the Arf Society, a reference to Zappa's Barking Pumpkin record label.

Thanks to the group, the little town of Bad Doberan, in an economically depressed area near the Baltic Sea, has become the unlikely site of an annual Zappa festival. This week, the town also dedicated a bronze bust of the late American musician in its central square. [read more]

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Lawmakers ask Ashcroft to target online song swappers

U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to go after Internet users who download unauthorized songs and other copyrighted material, raising the possibility of jail time for digital-music fans. [read more]