HOLLYWOOD LIBERATION ARMY

WHAT'S AHEAD FOR NET, DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT

A nice roundtable discussion on how The Internet and digital technology are changing entertainment at lightning speed.  In short, the coming years will scramble concepts of music-making, movies, TV networks and advertising. 

One excellent quote from Roger McNamee, a Silicon Valley VC and author of "The New Normal":  Most major media companies define their technology strategy in terms of digital-rights management. Their view of the world is about controlling access to what they own. The next 10 years are about exactly the opposite. It's about the creative people and their fans getting together. Whatever it is you like, it will be increasingly available. It's time to give customers what they want.

It's now our job and the industry's job to actually do it. The old business models are brain-dead, and the body will die soon.

Kind of ties in to what I said about Hollywood in my previous post.

USA Today

SUPREME COURT POWER TO STOP P2P LIMITED

Variety, or at least this reporter, seems to agree with me that the Supreme Court's ruling on P2P, even if it rules against Morpheus, Grokster, et al., will have limited effect in reality as the whole P2P business will simply move overseas.  In addition, as soon as one side loses in this case, they will be lobbying Congress, which seems to be itching to get involved anyway.  This fight is far from over.  I think in the end, the only real solution to harnessing the power of P2P while protecting the rights of content creators will be a technological one.   

Variety

MORE LONG TAIL GOODNESS -- THIS TIME IN TELEVISION

Wired's Chris Anderson goes in depth into the imminenet transformation of the television business using the 'Long Tail' paradigm.  It fits in nicely with the whole 'Exploding TV' meme.

The Long Tail via Lost Remote

ENTERTAINMENT BIZ PREPS FOR DAY IN COURT

A nice concise summary of the upcoming P2P case in front of the Supreme Court:

"Three men will stand before the U.S. Supreme Court March 29, arguing one of the most important copyright cases in history.

One will speak for most of the entertainment industry. The second will argue for two companies that provide peer-to-peer file-sharing software, and the third will represent the U.S. government.

Experts agree that the court's written opinion in case No. 04-480 will have a profound impact on federal legislation, business models, law enforcement and the financial resources of industries that have provided an estimated 6% of the country's gross domestic product. Its legal and practical effect will touch the entertainment, technology and copyright industries -- and nearly everyone who earns a living in these sectors..."

As important as this case is, I'm not sure even the Supreme Court can stop file-sharing, assuming that it would want to.  The Internet is a transnational actor, and it will more likely take a world legal consensus and perhaps even some kind of international treaty in which most countries are signatory before file-sharing can truly be contained.  I'm not sure that will ever happen.

Reuters

NOTES ON INTERNET MOVIE FINANCING

The holy grail of independent movie financing will be the ability for independent movie makers to utilize the internet to raise funds for their movies, collecting a dollar here and a dollar there from a prospective mass audience.  To contribute to the overuse of the 'Long Tail' meme, let's call it the 'Long Tail' of movie financing.  I've seen a few nascent attempts at this, with Civilian.com's Ethan Hawke movie being the most prominent.  MoviesForTheMasses is a new entry in the category and it will be interesting to see how successful they can be without any recognizable names.

Hollywood Reporter

EXTRA! EXTRA! GET YOUR FIRST EPISODE FREE!

Dare I call it a word I don't feel qualified to use?  A meme.  Releasing the first episode of new series on the Internet has become the new tv "meme"?  It certainly makes a lot of sense.  Ploosh talks about Yahoo's streaming of "Fat Actress" and MySpaces.com's bow of "The Office".  The most intriguing, of course, is the Beebs officially unconfirmed leakage of the first episode of "The Who" on p2p networks, which is probably the best and the boldest of all the bonanaza, if that's what it really did.  Expect a lot more of this, especially from AOL.com.

BRAVE NEW BOX OFFICE

Several new online startups are trying to provide innovative ways for people to view movies.  Akimbo Systems allows customers to buy movie downloads for playback on TVs (via an Akimbo set-top box) or PCs.  EZTakes users will be able to download movies to PCs and burn them to disc. (Service is currently available only as part of a test.) ObjectCube lets you rent or buy movies for playback on TVs (via a set-top box), PCs or Xboxes. Movies can be downloaded, streamed or delivered via disc. For now, only "adult" films are available.  Finally, Peerflix allows surfers to trade used DVDs via the Web.

News.com

THE OFFICIAL BITTORRENT HOME PAGE

Considering its importance and effect, it's about time they had something a little more professional looking.

MOVIE DOWNLOADS ARE THE NETS FASTEST GROWING SECTOR

According to Eric Garland, the CEO of Big Champagne, a leading company that tracks activity across most of the file-sharing networks -- grabbing movies and TV shows off the Net for free is the fastest growing activity in cyberspace.  While it's still in early-adopter mode, Garland says its just a matter of time before the practice is widespread.  His advice to the studios -- allow people the option to legally download CURRENT theatrical releases or get screwed.  One thing's for sure, Hollywood's love affair with the DVD faces troubled waters.

Vancouver Sun

FINNISH POLICE RAID BITTORRENT SITE

Police in Finland have raided the operations of a popular BitTorrent file-swapping site, seizing equipment and arresting four people who ran the site. Around 30 volunteers who helped moderate the site were also arrested.

Police say the site had 10,000 users, all Finnish, who downloaded illegaly-copied content worth millions of euros. The site featured 6,000 torrents, including film, videos, music and games.

The Register

HLA:  It begins...