Digestible news tidbits, take 5.

Thanks to Aelo's twitter feed, I didn't even have to check my regular sources for new Aion news. Awesome. :)

Shanda's "AION" Offer Free Play in 10 Server Groups
Quote:

Shanda (Nasdaq:SNDA) will let gamers of its licensed pay-for-time western fantasy MMORPG AION play for free from April 30 to May 15 in ten server groups in its seventh and eighth server farms, to be opened on April 30. The game's commercial operation version 1.0, "Yao Sai Pan Long," was released on April 16 and charges RMB 0.48 per hour. AION began open beta testing on April 8.
Source: JLM Pacific Epoch - Shanda's "AION" Offer Free Play in 10 Server Groups

Chinese(?) law firm cracks down on Aion "plug-in" (bot?) users/creators(?), receives a surrender letter.
Source: Translated version of http://games.qq.com/a/20090423/000527.htm