Briefly: Rotten, Petty, hacker law, Beautiful South

VH1 gave Johnny Rotten a political TV show. "Rotten Television" debuts on Friday night (10/27).

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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' new song "Surrender" can be streamed at MP3.com.

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R.E.M. performed in Athens, Ga.--the town in which the members formed the band--on Sunday (10/22) in support of a local movement to slow urban growth in the small city, according to the band's website.

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According to Webnoize, "A new federal law goes into effect Saturday [10/28] that makes it illegal to hack a DVD, break into password-protected online encyclopedias or spoof an access code to watch an encrypted live concert stream."

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Jacqueline Abbott of the Beautiful South has left the British band's U.S tour due for "personal reasons," NME.com reported.

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Neve is scheduled to participate in a webchat at Getmusic.com on Wednesday (10/25) at 8 p.m Eastern Time.