Category: media

The Featured Artists’ Coalition, the Music Producers Guild and the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors have come out “against UK government proposals to kick file-sharers off the internet. Persistent file-sharers could have their internet accounts suspended in an attempt to crack down on piracy.”

“The Motion Picture Association of America’s Classification and Ratings Board substantially,” and quietly, “changed its policy earlier this year so that the promotional clips from upcoming films no longer need to be suitable for ‘general’ audiences,” a.k.a. kids. Now trailers are approved for “appropriate” audiences, though what counts as appropriate is unclear.

“You won’t see LACMA without film,” Michael Govan says. “It’s way too important to art history and to us. But the shape of that program … everyone’s saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ I’m telling you, it’s broken.”

“[W]hen it comes to making new product these days, Hollywood is perhaps the most enthusiastic outpost anywhere of cultural conservatism. … [T]he movie and TV businesses are obsessed with reliving the past, giving the green light to a deluge of projects adapted from old (and, ahem, not-so-very old) movies and TV shows.”

“The lawsuit, which sought to terminate New Line’s rights to all of Tolkien’s works including ‘The Hobbit’ until the claims were resolved, was settled in the nick of time. Not only were the plaintiffs scheduled to go to trial Oct. 19, but the two ‘Hobbit’ movies are slated to go into production next year….”

Thanks to a series of generous tax incentives for shooting films and for building infrastructure, investors and media executives are converting empty factories and office buildings, many shuttered by the state’s ailing auto industry, into production facilities.

“A bill now before Congress, and considered by some low-power radio advocates to have a good chance of passage this year, would potentially double the number of licensed, low-power stations from about 800 now to perhaps 1,600 or more. At the same time, technology is shifting the boundaries and definitions of what it means to be local, and even what it means to be radio.”

“While Iranian cinema was preoccupied for much of the 1980s and 1990s with symbolism and allegorically cherubic children, the Iranian pics at Venice this year deal directly with the social upheaval in the country both preceding and following June’s presidential elections.”

“Norwegian lamp maker Luxo filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in New York accusing Pixar and parent Walt Disney Co. of infringing its copyright by selling a limited-edition Luxo Jr. lamp packaged with a Blu-ray version of the Disney/Pixar movie ‘Up.'”

“Pixar has made 10 films, four of which have won best animation Oscars. Earlier, John Lasseter said he hoped more animations would be put forward for the best picture Oscar now that 10 films will be eligible for the shortlist.”