While most '80s movies see their cinematic weight flicker as the years go by, others are able to withstand the passing decades and still pack a punch. Such is the case with “War Games” and in this 25th anniversary edition packed with worthwhile extras, our society’s current addiction to computers and all things techie makes the film’s premise feel fresh and relevant.
The Motion Picture Association of America has tried any number of tactics to fight piracy, but its latest scheme might actually prove useful to movie consumers on the Internet. The group is supposedly working on a new website that will offer information on how to find legit sources of movies so that users won't have to resort to copyright infringement.
The threatening letter on the doormat about licence fee non-payment might soon be joined by another from your local internet service provider. At least it will if you have been virally spreading Coldplay without permission. Bereft, perhaps, of enough incidents of dangerous dogs to merit new legislation, the government is attempting to cut illegal downloading activity by up to 80%.
The Last HOPE, a hacker conference organized by 2600, starts tomorrow, Friday July 18th in New York City. If you can't be there, you can listen online.
Radio station W2H (according to Bernie S., those are real, albeit temporary, call letters) will be broadcasting from radio.hope.net. Also known as Radio Statler, (the hotel hosting the conference used to be called the Statler) the station will be live from 10AM ET Friday until the close of the conference at 8PM on Sunday July 20th.
It’s unknown what kind of money was involved in the deal, but Google has teamed up with the creator of Family Guy to create two minute episodes of a new cartoon called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy”. MacFarlane will take a percentage of the profit made by advertising that accompanies the 50 two minute episodes that he plans to distribute only on the internet. The cartoon is to be distributed on the AdSense network, though I’m not completely sure how successful this will end up being.
A 25-second snippet of video showing actor Verne Troyer and a former girlfriend having sex, available online over the past couple of days, is all the world will see of the tape -- for now.
On Friday, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order requested by Troyer's attorneys that prevents porn distributors from taking orders for the full-length video and prevents TMZ from broadcasting any more clips. The celebrity Web site posted the short segment on its site Wednesday; Troyer sued the site and porn distributors Thursday for $20 million in damages.
It's one thing to share an album that has already been released, which is illegal because it constitutes copyright infringement.
However, it's an entirely different matter to leak unreleased material, as a poster who goes by the nom de blog "Skwerl" on the Antiquiet blog discovered Monday.
YouTube is to extend the 10-minute limit on video clips for independent filmmakers and official YouTube content partners.
In a memo sent to content partners last week, YouTube said: "You now will be able to upload and monetize videos in your account that are longer than 10 minutes. This feature is exclusively for partners."
The maxium file size has been set at 1GB, enough space for a full-length standard definition movie.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said it has issued 247 licenses for online video-sharing, but has so far not licensed China's top three private web sites with video-sharing services.
Tudou.com, Youku.com and 56.com are China's most popular video-sharing sites. "We will keep trying our best to obtain a license," Gong Xiaoli, a Tudou.com public affairs official, told XFN-Asia.
Like elephants, rock fans don't forget. In May 2000, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich personally delivered to the U.S. Senate judiciary committee a 60,000-page printout of Napster users who'd downloaded his bands' songs, resulting in the banning of more than 300,000 users from the service and ultimately, Napster's demise.
Eight years later, the heavy metal act is ready to jump on the digital bandwagon, but music fans don't seem to be making things easy for them.
