Category: media

The bill was written by Leahy and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and would empower the Justice Department to crack down on websites dedicated to illegal sharing of copyrighted content.

The mastermind of Public.Resources.org has started a program to catalogue and digitize the vast amount of footage produced by the federal government. (Lots of space and nature footage, for instance.) “Fedflix has garnered more traffic than all 13 Smithsonian YouTube channels combined.”

“Most independent filmmakers don’t rely on ticket sales to recoup their investment because the majority of their films never make it into theaters. Instead, independent films rely on DVD sales when their movies head directly into the home video market. But consumers have substantially cut back on their purchases of DVDs as legitimate online viewing options become readily available.”

“Amid ongoing speculation that KCET may break away from PBS, representatives from the four Los Angeles area PBS affiliates met Wednesday to discuss a restructuring plan that would prevent the nation’s second-largest media market from losing its flagship public television station.”

“New digital recordings of events in U.S. history and early radio shows are at risk of being lost much faster than older ones on tape and many are already gone, according to a study on sound released today.”

“The protesters, members of the Islamic Defenders Front, chanted homophobic slogans and accused organisers of the Q! film festival, now in its ninth year, of blasphemy, threatening to burn down a venue if screenings did not halt.”

“The 15th annual “Where We Are on TV” report released today found that 3.9% of actors appearing regularly on prime-time network drama and comedy series in the 2010-11 season will portray gay, lesbian or bisexual characters. That’s up from 3% in the 2009-10 season. The increase in 2008-09 was 2.6%.”

“It is frustrating to observe [UK films’] inability to engage with ordinary concerns. Costume drama and social realism continue to cast their shadows over much of its output. With a few exceptions, they yield few surprises. … But this is less the fault of British film-makers than of Britain itself. It is no accident that many of the great British films date from the country’s finest hours.”

Executive producer Peter Jackson threatened Sunday to yank the beleaguered production from his home country of New Zealand after several international actors unions called on members to boycott the movies.

“People were willing back then to pay top dollar for porn, now it looks like the majority of users think adult content is free. That is a huge shift in just a few years.”