Hollywood

Apple trying to store your video in the cloud

Apple's plans for cloud computing go beyond music.

The company's representatives have recently spoken with some of the major film studios about enabling iTunes users to store their content on the company's servers, two people familiar with the discussions told CNET. That's in addition to streaming television shows and music.

Apple has told the studios that under the plan, iTunes users will access video from various Internet-connected devices. Apple would, of course, prefer that users access video from the iPad, the company's upcoming tablet computer, the sources said. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said Apple doesn'… Read more

Hollywood's losing digital downloads battle

Digital downloads, despite seeing healthy growth through 2008, leveled off in 2009, coming in at $291 million instead of the $360 million projected by Screen Digest. While Hollywood searches for scapegoats, it need look no further than itself and the burdensome controls it puts on digital.

As Arash Amel, research director with Screen Digest, puts it:

Digital downloading is characterized by its restrictions--it's all about what viewers can't do, rather than what they can do.

When will Hollywood learn?

The movie studios are overlooking their real value, just as the record labels did before them. Hollywood is desperate … Read more

Buzz Out Loud Podcast 1159: Wear clean underpants on the Internet

We discover that the Internet is just as dangerous as outside, which means you need to wear clean underwear. Natali also invents the IPADBJ?RN for all you iPad-wanters who need to use it hands-free. And we declare Donald Bell Emperor Pimp of portable entertainment devices.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1159

Film studio blames money woes on economy, tech

Some of the same technological forces that have consumed large portions of the music sector appear to be eating away at the film industry.

Sony Pictures Entertainment, one of the six biggest Hollywood film studios, told employees Monday that in March the company will lay off 450 workers, the equivalent of 6.5 percent of its global workforce, according to a story in The Los Angeles Times.

"Our industry is affected by two things: It's affected by the economy, of course, and it's affected by technology," Amy Pascal, the studio's co-chairman, said in a video … Read more

Grandma endures wrongful ISP piracy suspension

Update 9:30 a.m. PT To include e-mail exchanges between Qwest employees and Cathi Paradiso.

All Cathi "Cat" Paradiso knew for sure, as she learned that her Web access was being shut off, was that she was losing her struggle to stay calm.

To Paradiso, the customer-service representative from Qwest Communications on the phone with her could have been speaking Slovenian for all the sense it made. Her Internet service was suspended... Hollywood studios accused her of copyright violations... she illegally downloaded 18 films and TV shows..."Zombieland," "Harry Potter," "South Park...&… Read more

MPAA's Dan Glickman steps down

Dan Glickman, the man who had a mixed record on antipiracy efforts as CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, has stepped down.

Glickman is leaving the MPAA, the trade group representing the six largest Hollywood film studios, to become president of Refugees International.

MPAA President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Pisano is taking over the CEO post on an interim basis. He's held his positions since 2005.

This move has been coming for a long time. The MPAA's public relations team has worked over time to tamp down all the rumors about the studios' dissatisfaction about … Read more

Apple pulls iPhone app that upset Hollywood

I am sure honest Hollywood agents do exist. It's just that they don't seem to employ the finest PR firms to proselytize their honesty.

This might explain why Oisin Hanrahan, the Irish creator of an iPhone app called SuperAgent, decided that the main character in his game might be a few scruples short of Mother Teresa.

SuperAgent seems to have been well received, a reception that might have led to its being noticed by, well, Hollywood super agents.

According to the Independent, one super agent may have enjoyed a particular interest in this app. His name is Ari … Read more

Accused 'Wolverine' pirate calls charges 'ridiculous'

The FBI has accused the man who allegedly was first, or among the first, to upload a pirated copy of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" that circulated online in April. What authorities have apparently yet to do is identify the original source of the leak.

On Wednesday, after Gilberto Sanchez was charged in New York with violating federal copyright laws by posting "Wolverine" to a file-sharing site a month before the film's theatrical release, he told reporters from The New York Daily News: "It's just ridiculous. I bought it from a Korean guy on the … Read more

Hulu's backers bicker as Web video soars

Woo wee, did Hulu's fortunes flip-flop fast.

The Web's deepest stockpile of full-length TV shows and feature films is seeing some very public infighting over its future. The disagreements are over how Hulu should generate revenue and even how to sell ads, according to a report in Mediaweek.

Things were going so well. Since Hulu's October 2007 launch, the Web video site founded by NBC Universal and News Corp., has grown its audience, generated big ad revenue, and been bathed in positive press.

Hulu has mounted the only serious challenge to YouTube. The site also enables its … Read more

Rutger Hauer to Hollywood: Don't fear tech

Rutger Hauer has seen things you people wouldn't believe.

The Dutch actor, who issued some of the best-known lines in sci-fi history in his role as a murderous artificial life form in Ridley Scott's 1982 film "Blade Runner," has a vision of the future that's laden with technology. He's different than many in Hollywood in that he doesn't think digital technology will destroy filmmaking.

On the contrary; at a time when the major film studios are wringing their hands over online piracy and the growing ease with which pirated movies can be shared … Read more