mpaa
Random Stuff
MPAA Shuts Down Entire Town’s Wi-Fi Over Single Illegal Download
5:00PM Kyle VanHemert | The citizens of Coshocton, Ohio are without their free internet after a single download prompted the Motion Picture Association of America to shut down the town’s municipal Wi-Fi network. More »
Entertainment
MPAA Is Still Trying To Plug Your Analogue Hole
2:40AM Danny Allen | Still use component connections with your pay TV box? Listen up: The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has again asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to let studios disable analogue connections during certain on-demand movies. The FCC currently bans this, and here’s why that’s a good thing. More »
Online
Pirate Bay’s Censor-Free YouTube Sails Into Beta Extreme
8:26PM Stephen Climpson | Well, this should make the Pirate Bay’s court appeal interesting. For the last couple of years, the guys have been working on an anything-goes, censor-free haven for online video sharing called VideoBay, and it’s now gone into “Beta Extreme.” More »
Online
Blockquote: ‘Suing your customers is a bad idea’
2:59AM Brian Lam | Irving Azoff, CEO of Ticketmaster: “They were afraid of Napster, they were afraid of iTunes; The business resists change…Basically the record industry sat around and tried to protect an old model; Yeah, suing your customer is a bad idea.” [All Things D] More »
Entertainment
This Is How You Record a TV With a Camcorder So You’re Just an MPAA Toolbag, Not a Pirate
12:00PM Matt Buchanan | No clever invective needed: It’s an instructional video from the MPAA showing how to record a TV screen for classroom clips, instead of ripping a DVD. I think they really mean it, too. =( [BoingBoing] More »
Software
RealNetworks Sued for DVD Copying Software That Nobody Wanted Anyway
8:15PM John Herrman | Almost reflexively, six studios have filed suit against RealNetworks for their brand-new DVD copying software. RealDVD, as it is (was?) called, was tepidly received on account of crippling DRM which only allows for viewing of a ripped DVD on one PC, precluding the portability that might account for someone wanting to rip a DVD in the first place. That uselessness is precisely why these suits are so interesting; it’s difficult to see what the studios—Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures, the Walt Disney Company and Sony— actually think they stand to lose. More »
Entertainment
MPAA Want to Bung-Up ‘Analog Hole,’ Disable Piracy-Enabling Cable Box Outputs
11:15PM Kit Eaton | Movies movies movies… we all love a good show, but the lovely MPAA is up to some pretty strange shenanigans to ensure that you get to see some shows just once—until they’re out on DVD at least. The fab guys at the Motion Picture Association of America are petitioning the FCC on behalf of some major movie studios to close the “analogue hole” that may allow people to record movies broadcast on cable before they hit DVD. “The Petitioners’ theatrical movies are too valuable in this early distribution window to risk their exposure to unauthorised copying” runs the argument, and is why the MPAA wants “selectable output control” (SOC) enabled on some cable box outputs. More »
Entertainment
MPAA Creating Website to Tell You Which Service Offers Which Movie
4:20AM Adam Frucci | In this brave new world of digital video on demand, there’s no single place that lets you watch every movie out there (other than, you know, BitTorrent). Instead, there’s a smattering of offerings that offer different slivers of the overall movie catalog, forcing you to switch from your Apple TV to your Vudu to your Netflix box to watch what you want to watch. Annoying! The MPAA’s solution? No, it’s not consolidating so every device accesses every movie. That’d be too convenient. Instead, they’re working on a new website that tells you which service to find each movie on. Hey, thanks for providing a band-aid for this here machete wound, MPAA! That’ll solve the problem! [Ars Technica] More »
Entertainment
RIAA Tech Chief: DRM Not Dead, Will Become More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine
9:00AM Matt Buchanan | As CNET points out, when Sony BMG became the last major label to sell DRM-free tracks, we pretty much declared DRM deader than HD DVD or Tony Stark if he got in a fight with Batman (at least for the music industry; movies are another story). But RIAA tech chief David Hughes told a panel yesterday that DRM is tech’s Obi-Wan Kenobi: It’s coming back and will be powerful than we can possibly imagine, but it won’t be giving sage advice to budding Jedi. More »
Networks
