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Hollywood's One Strike Policy
Video store retailer are becoming digital piracy cops too. The Hollywood Reporter said the "Video Software Dealers Assn. said it will bring the MPAA's anti-piracy ad campaign, 'Rated I: Inappropriate for All Ages,' to approximately 10,000 video stores nationwide. Beginning in December, those stores will play anti-piracy trailers on in-store monitors and display anti-piracy posters and counter cards." Watch the Rated I videos here.
• Hollywood Reporter: Movie Studios Launch Lawsuits Against P2P Pirates
At least one privacy advocate questioned the MPAA's PR campaign. "'I don't understand why (the MPAA) is doing this,' said Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 'It doesn't make any sense. It hasn't worked for the RIAA.'" According to Wired, "Shultz said the MPAA messages seem contradictory: 'They are placing these in locations where people are paying money for movies. They are sending the messages to people who are buying their products.'"
• Wired.com: Movie Studios Sue File Traders
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The MPAA certainly got the attention of one group often blamed for fueling the rise of online song and movie piracy -- college kids. Hollywood's plans to sue movie pirates was the subject recently of student newspaper stories at Columbia, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Harvard, Ithaca, N.C. State, Princeton, U.C.-Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington and Yale.
Getting the Law on Their Side
The MPAA is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, and the trade group is putting its power to work on Capitol Hill this week as Congress convenes for its lame duck session. At the top of the MPAA's agenda is tightening copyright laws. But there's no guarantee Hollywood will have its way, as Wired reported: "Several lobbying camps from different industries and ideologies are joining forces to fight an overhaul of copyright law, which they say would radically shift in favor of Hollywood and the record companies and which Congress might try to push through during a lame-duck session that begins this week. The Senate might vote on HR2391, the Intellectual Property Protection Act, a comprehensive bill that opponents charge could make many users of peer-to-peer networks, digital-music players and other products criminally liable for copyright infringement. The bill would also undo centuries of 'fair use' -- the principle that gives Americans the right to use small samples of the works of others without having to ask permission or pay."
More from Wired: "The groups that lined up against the bill include the Consumer Electronics Association, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the American Conservative Union and public-interest advocacy group Public Knowledge, which hosted a press briefing on Friday as the opening salvo of its campaign to stop passage. The groups are calling for the Senate to postpone consideration of the bill until at least next year, when there would be more time for hearings and debate. In addition, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairmanship of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will expire next year, with Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) in line to take over the committee. Bill opponents hope Specter would take a different approach to copyright law than Hatch, who has been an advocate of several bills that have rankled public-interest, technology and consumer-electronics camps. The entertainment industry has been lobbying hard for quick Senate passage during the lame-duck session, with opponents gearing up for a tough fight."
• Wired: Senate May Ram Copyright Bill
washingtonpost.com yesterday reported on Hollywood's lobbying work in Congress to slap people who illegally download movies or songs with stiff jail time penalties. "The package combines eight bills that the entertainment industry supports as part of a large-scale effort to crack down on the rampant spread of piracy on the Internet. The bill also would criminalize using a video recorder to copy films while they are still in the theater, and allow the Justice Department to file civil lawsuits against song-swappers," washingtonpost.com reported. "The bill is one of many that Congress could consider as! it convenes today for a post-election lame-duck session, but sources familiar with the legislation said that it is impossible to predict whether lawmakers will act. Opponents of the bill fear that its supporters will slip it into one of the massive legislative packages that Congress often passes at the end of the year."
• washingtonpost.com: Congress May Act On Internet Piracy Bill (Registration required)
Genius or Turncoat?
Shawn Fanning of Napster fame is back in the file-swapping business, but this time he's working with recording studios and other copyright holders on an above-board service. Three years after the courts effectively shuttered Napster, the cover is coming off of Fanning's next venture, San Francisco-based Snocap. "In another sign of the music industry's grudging embrace of file-swapping technology, Universal Music Group has agreed to license its 150,000-song catalog to Snocap," the San Jose Mercury News reported yesterday.
More from the paper: "Snocap, which has been operating in stealth mode for more than a year, will provide the technology to let listeners buy music legally distributed over Internet file-sharing networks. The Snocap service is expected to make its debut in early December, sources confirm. And Mashboxx, a new file-swapping service to be powered by Snocap, is expected to make its debut in January, according to industry sources."
• The San Jose Mercury News: File-Swap Firm Gets License To Sell Music (Registration required)
Dow Jones Newswires explained yesterday that "So far, the major record companies have opposed licensing their content to file-sharing software firms, refusing to offer their artists' music for sale while unauthorized, CD-quality versions of the songs are being traded for free over the same networks. Still, the recording industry is interested in turning millions of computer users now swapping music online into paying consumers on ready-made online distribution networks. The filtering technology developed by Snocap ... has generated interest as a way to make a recording company-friendly file-sharing network a reality."
• Dow Jones Newswires via The Wall Street Journal: Universal Music Licensing Songs To File Sharing Co-Source (Subscription required)
CNET filed its own dispatch on Snocap: "Fanning's technology is designed to work behind the scenes of other companies' services, rather than directly replacing either file-swapping networks like Kazaa or today's download stores such as Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store. But several companies are already planning to use the technology, which could allow peer-to-peer networks to become online stores that sell music legally, much like iTunes. In order to get there, though, peer-to-peer companies would have to agree to keep unauthorized music out--something large networks that support millions of users might be loathe to do," CNET said.
• CNET's News.com: Music Rebels Seek To Tame P2P
Tivo, Advertisers' Best Friend
Tivo, the digital recording service which has been a runaway success with time-crunched TV watchers, is getting cozier with advertisers. That means Tivo might not be as popular with consumers, who have used the service to zip through commercials, as the service may soon come with strings attached, the Los Angeles Times reported.
TiVo has been actively "courting advertisers, selling inroads to a universe most customers saw as commercial-free. The result is a groundbreaking new business strategy, developed with more than 30 of the nation's largest advertisers, that in key ways circumvents the very technology that made TiVo famous. By March, TiVo viewers will see 'billboards,' or small logos, popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them, offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If a viewer 'opts in' to the ad, their contact information will be downloaded to that advertiser -- exclusively and by permission only -- so even more direct marketing can take place," the paper said. Next year Tivo also has plans for viewers to buy products and participate in surveys with a click of their remote, the paper said. QVC fans take note.
• The Los Angeles Times: Tivo Will No Longer Skip Past Advertisers (Registration required)
A Google Glut
With the expiration yesterday of a stock lock-down period for Google insiders, millions of company shares became available for public trading, prompting Google's stock price to slide nearly 7 percent. "The stock price fell $12.33, to $172.55, on heavy volume yesterday. About 20.9 million shares changed hands, nearly double the 11.9 million shares that traded on Monday," The Washington Post said. Wall Street was been worried about the stock's value getting watered down, Dow Jones Newswires said.
• The Washington Post: Google Stock Slips As New Shares Hit Market (Registration required)
• Dow Jones Newswires via The Wall Street Journal: Google Drops 6.7% as Investors Are Freed to Sell Stock From IPO
