plus: Smirnoff's not for kids. Big Pun Place? The Baffler burns. More Beach Boys rarities.

Aimster--which developed a file sharing service that runs through instant messaging systems--has filed a lawsuit against the Recording Industry Association of America, Reuters reported. The suit is asking a U.S. district court judge in Albany, N.Y., for a "declaratory judgment that the company is not infringing on copyrights." Aimster claims that the RIAA has served it with a cease and desist order to block the sharing of copyrighted material through its system.

Webnoize reported that the number of songs downloaded through the Napster file trading service fell 36% in April, to 1.5 billion songs. The report attributes the decline to the increased effectiveness of Napster’s filtering processes.

The Smirnoff Music Centre in Dallas will be known by another name--perhaps the Music Centre at Fair Park--when teen star Aaron Carter [ tickets ] performs at the venue this summer, the Dallas Morning News reported. Though the vodka brand adorns the amphitheater most of the year--the company reportedly paid $6 million for naming rights--a contract reportedly dictates that if 70% of a show's crowd is expected to be "non-adults," the Smirnoff name comes down.

A proposal to rename a part of a Bronx street “Big Pun Place,” for the deceased rapper Christopher Rios, does not have enough support in the New York City Council to move forward, the New York Times reported.

The Chicago offices of mass culture watchdog the Baffler burned in a fire on April 25, and the magazine is seeking the money and other equipment it needs to keep running. More information is available at the Baffler’s website.

Capitol Records will release the Beach Boys’ “Hawthorne, Ca. – Birthplace of a Musical Legacy,” on May 22. The two-disc collection contains “rare studio sessions,rehearsal tapes, and commentary about the Beach Boys’ incomparable recording career,” according to the label.