Category: media

The BBC’s global weekly audience rose by 6% to 239 million in 12 months, driven by coverage of the Arab Spring.

The celebrated Hollywood director, who has long campaigned for the use of film and restoration of old prints, has “lost the battle” and is to shoot his next project, The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio, digitally.

“Evildoers, beware! You cannot hide from the modern-day superhero! And neither can anyone else heading to the movies this summer. … The New York Times‘s chief movie critics, A. O. Scott and Manohla Dargis, ponder the meaning of an apparently invincible genre.”

“YouTube’s top five corporate channels – which include music video distributor Vevo, video game network Machinima, and a new media company named Maker Studios – gathered a total of 1.5 billion views in May. This is good news for YouTube, which has struggled to find audiences and ad dollars for its premium channels.”

“Largely an effort at crowdsourcing new film projects, Amazon Studios launched in late 2010 and has solicited more than 7,000 scripts, in addition to having a first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. Any user can upload an original script, get community feedback, solicit revisions and watch trailers and test films.”

“Suspected internet pirates will have 20 working days to appeal against allegations of copyright infringement and must pay £20 to do so, according to revised plans to enforce the UK’s Digital Economy Act.”

“In a draft code published today by [OFCOM], internet service providers would be required to send letters to customers informing them when their account has been connected with reports of suspected online copyright infringement.” Any customer who receives three such letters risks having his/her information turned over to copyright holders for possible legal action.

“The treaty, the result of years of negotiations, will provide a legal framework to protect and strengthen actors’ rights to their work. It will potentially allow actors to share in revenue generated internationally by their work and grants them the moral right to prevent the distortion or lack of attribution of their performances.”

“Tim Bray, a fan of Bradbury’s writing, is recommending to the Internet Engineering Task Force, which governs such choices, that when access to a website is denied for legal reasons the user is given the status code 451.”