Frank Kogan

I remember the great general admiration for Johnny Rotten when, after he quit the Sex Pistols, he changed his stage name to his real name, John Lydon, abandoning "Johnny Rotten" and its high-name recognition and commercial appeal. He was considered wise (his understanding that if you tried to institutionalize and repeat and live off the Sex Pistols' achievement, you were in effect undoing that achievement) and therefore full of integrity (his refusing to coast commercially on his past with the Sex Pistols). But what I hadn't known, and what I don't think was generally known, was that Sex Pistols' manager Malcolm McLaren said he had the rights to the name "Johnny Rotten" and had gotten an injunction against Lydon using it. (One caveat: this is according to Simon Reynolds, in his book Rip It Up And Start Again, and Reynolds sometimes gets things wrong.)

Lydon may well have decided to dump the name anyway. I haven't done any research myself (haven't even checked Wikip) to see if he made an effort to keep it or purchase it.

Perhaps Dline calculated that by claiming ownership of the name "E.via" they held a trump card, but E.via called them on it, said, "Okay, play your trump." (This being entirely speculation on my part.) Actually, the company seems to be acting out of straight vindictiveness. But that's by E.via's account as translated by Allkpop.

Don't know if the price rise indicates that the money that the agencies, artists, etc. have been getting from downloads just isn't enough (except for acts that are putting up huge numbers). Or maybe it's the exact opposite, the agencies perceiving a rise in demand for mp3's so raising the price accordingly.