AlphaMale

Ozzy beer still on shelves after Brewer's Art receives cease-and-desist letter By Wesley Case and Chris Kaltenbach, The Baltimore Sun 7:09 p.m. EDT, March 27, 2014 Ozzy Osbourne has endorsed soda, a cellphone and even imitation butter spread. But one product the Prince of Darkness apparently does not approve of is Ozzy, the Belgian-style strong pale ale made by the Baltimore-based company The Brewer's Art. The local brewery received a cease-and-desist letter from representatives of Osbourne, the hard-rock-forefather-turned-reality-TV-star, Brewer's Art co-owner Tom Creegan confirmed. The canned version of the beer has a logo depicting a clenched fist with the letters O-Z-Z-Y spelled on the fingers, similar to the Black Sabbath singer's own left hand. Bat imagery also appears on the can, a likely reference to one of Osbourne's most infamous on-stage stunts. Creegan declined to comment further, on his attorney's recommendation. Marcee Rondan, a publicist for Osbourne, had no comment. In February 2005, a Baltimore Sun article reported that Creegan said the beer was named after the singer. Liquor stores in Baltimore said they are still selling the beer, and six-packs were available Thursday afternoon at Brewer's Art. Gordon McNamara, manager of the Pinehurst Wine Shoppe in North Baltimore, said he tripled his order of the beer recently because he had heard about the letter. He's gotten several calls about it from customers who heard about the controversy, and he expects to see a bit of a rush on the ale this weekend. "I think it's a good beer — people really enjoy it," he said. "These celebrities make tons of money, how is it going to hurt them? These are local guys doing a really good thing." But celebrities have the right to decide how their names and images are used commercially, said Cynthia Blake Sanders, an intellectual property lawyer who teaches entertainment and sports law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. That's especially true of someone like Osbourne, whose reputation is built not on name alone, but on the persona he has established over the years. "You can't make the commercial use of a person's name on any product, but particularly not [with] people who have a value on their persona," said Sanders, who does not represent either side in the dispute. "If they called it Ozzy and it wasn't so clearly a sort of heavy-metal styling, somebody might connect it with a different Ozzy," she said. "But when they've used both his tattoo, in addition to his hands" and the bat imagery, "that's really using a great deal of his persona." Especially in the Internet age, when it's difficult for even small, regional businesses to fly under the radar, such suits are not uncommon. Earlier this year, rapper Kanye West objected to the name "Coinye" for a bitcoin-like currency (the coin's developers seem to have abandoned the project). And in 2013, lawyers for comedian Bill Cosby sent a cease-and-desist order to a Santa Monica man who founded the site cosbysweaters.com; the site has since changed its name, and now features a photo of Cosby with devil horns and ears added. Even Ben & Jerry's ice cream, when it introduced Cherry Garcia in 1987, briefly ran afoul of its namesake, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia. The dispute escalated, according to Brad Edmondson's "Ice Cream Social: The Struggle for the Soul of Ben & Jerry's," until an agreement was reached that royalties from Cherry Garcia would go to a foundation the band had established. Celebrities tend to guard their images and reputations zealously, Sanders said, and don't always like it when someone, regardless of intent, piggybacks off of them without asking. "That's a common perception, that they like all the attention," she said. "But the thing is, if they derive their incomes from the investment they've made in their name and their persona, they're entitled to be paid for it." But why put a celebrity's name on a brew at all? Sanders believes it's all part of the effort to carve out a niche in a crowded marketplace. "When it's a product and you're going to lay down 10 bucks or 12 bucks for a six-pack of cans, you might walk past the Natty Boh and spoil yourself a little bit because you like Ozzy," she said. "They were probably looking for something edgy." wesley@bthesite.com chris.kaltenbach@baltsun.com Copyright © 2014, The Baltimore Sun Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-ae-brewers-art-ozzy-20140327,0,4303633.story#ixzz2xD7V17pl

I Only Want To Rock N Roll - Gene The Werewolf

Again....

Steel Panther - All You Can Eat

De La Cruz - Street Level

Wow.... that sucks. I loved their sound. De La Cruz As many of you may have noticed, De La Cruz is no longer active. We've decided to part ways and move onto new projects. We apologise for keeping you in the dark through the start of 2014, but we hope you understand that this hasn't been an easy decision for us to make. We want to thank everyone for their support over the last few years. We've had an absolute blast and owe all our success to you. Right now we're going to have a beer, and raise our glasses to all you De La fans worldwide. You'll always be the raddest fucks around. We're going to keep the page open to promote new projects from members past and present, as well as share some music from our mate's bands that we're particularly fond of. Later! - DE LA CRUZ

No Sin 4 Sin?

Agreed 110%

I concur!! Awesome!!!!

Anybody who wants to hear the 4 brand new songs, I have uploaded them. Just reply here or via PM and I shoot you the link.

Pretty Maids - Louder Than Ever Gus G - I Am The Fire Night By Night - NXN

Awesome disc folks. CD Showcase on the Metal Madman radio show last night. More variety than a power metal disc. Lots of good hard rock on there.

Thanks for those tracks!! Pretty awesome!!! \m/

That kicks ass!!

Harem Scarem - Voice Of Reason

Harem Scarem - Hope

Song sounds pretty good.

Sounds awesome!!

And back on topic, the last Magnum was okay. I'll check this out. The samples sound pretty good.

This is why this board is so dead most of the time. Stefan posted this back in January and besides his own added posts, not a single member has commented. I'm almost at the point where it's not even worth it to post a thread anymore because they mostly go ignored.

I thought this was old news. When Gunslingers debut came out, it was already known that Wig Wam was no more.

http://heavyharmonies.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=32079

Favorite disc of 2014 so far.

Yeah... one of the worst on the disc.