Jenna Bush calls dad during Ellen
Dec 05, 2007

First daughter Jenna Bush taped an appearance on "The Ellen Degeneres Show" Tuesday that will be broadcast on Wednesday. During the conversation that ranged from living as a celebrity in the public eye to Jenna's recent engagement, Ellen asked how easy it is to call her parents.

Ellen says Hello President Bush…how are you? Jenna tells her father on the phone, "this is the Ellen Degeneres Show." President Bush says "well that's great!" Ellen asks "how's it going?" President Bush says "It's going great, Ellen. How's my little girl doing?"

Ellen says "oh, she's great. She's scared she's going to get in trouble, because I just said, "Is it easy to just pick up the phone and call your dad anytime? She said, "Yes". So I said, "Okay well, let's call him, and then she goes, "oh", and now she's scared that she's not going to get any Christmas presents."

Jenna says "Dad?" President Bush replis "Yes, baby." Jenna asks "are you mad?" President Bush says "no, not at all. I'm excited to talk to you. I'm glad to talk to Ellen." Ellen says, "look, we are showing a picture of you holding your daughters when they were just born. That's beautiful." Jenna says "best day of your life, remember Dad?"

WCBCD News
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Michael Bay slams Microsoft over HD DVD
By Blake Snow
December 05 2007 9:42:36 AM PST

Director Michael Bay criticized Microsoft's "dirty secret" in backing HD DVD saying the real agenda is to eventually move towards digital downloads.

"Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads," Bay said on his official forums, when addressing user complaints about the unavailability of Transformers on Blu-ray.

"That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads."

PlayStation 3 (Blu-ray) and Xbox 360 (HD DVD with add-on) owners are both seen as key players in the high-definition disc wars given their buying power.

Game Pro

Photobucket, Picasa Bring Photo-Sharing To TiVo
by Caroline McCarthy
December 3, 2007 5:30 AM PST

Apparently, fast-forwarding through commercials just isn't enough. TiVo announced on Monday that users of select photo-sharing services are now able to access their image collections through its set-top boxes.

The digital video recorder manufacturer has partnered with two photo-sharing services--the Google-owned Picasa Web Albums and Fox Interactive Media-owned Photobucket--in order to enable users to surf through their photo albums as well as their friends' and family members', provided that their TiVo boxes are broadband-connected.

A release from the company emphasized the fact that photos are viewable in the highest resolution possible, which on the TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD devices means full high definition. In addition, the TiVo interface makes it possible for users to search the overall database of public Picasa or Photobucket images by keyword.

It's yet another step in TiVo's quest to make its equipment more versatile than the standard DVR--and to make it an appealing choice in a market that remains tepid. "At TiVo, we're focused on the entire entertainment experience, from movies to music, and in this case--memories," Jim Denney, TiVo's vice president of product marketing, said in the company's statement.

CNET Blogs
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CBS To Pirate Bay: Youre Ok By Us
By Chris Williams
November 29, 2007 - 19:14 GMT

Last.fm, the music recommendation site owned by US media conglomerate CBS, has today given Pirate Bay the thumbs up to use its servers to add radio streams to BitTorrent searches. The Swedish anti-copyright site has added a Last.fm widget to results pages as part of a new drop-down of extra information on artists blog.

A spokesman for London-based Last.fm told The Reg that while it would not seek to endorse Pirate Bay, it has no control over who uses its API. Even if it did, to stop Pirate Bay wouldn't be "in the spirit of" the API, he said. Last.fm's main service is providing music recommendations which it does by matching similar users' tastes, and creating bespoke radio streams around them.

The use of its servers by Pirate Bay marks an interesting test of the trend for websites to offer their own API. The API acquiescence is unlikely to win fans in the beleaguered record industry. The site spent months itself courting labels to assure its own legal status, while its parent company CBS is a major owner of US music radio stations.

Pirate Bay's outspoken stance against rights holders meanwhile, as well as publicity-seeking antics, have marked it out for special resentment from record industry bodies such as the Recording Industry Ass. of America. Servers were seized by Swedish authorities following US pressure last year, but the site quickly reemerged.

The Register
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EMI looking to slash funding for RIAA, IFPI
By Eric Bangeman
November 28, 2007 - 04:16PM CT

One of the Big Four labels is apparently unhappy with its return on investment when it comes to funding industry trade groups such as the IFPI and RIAA. British label EMI, which was recently purchased by a private equity fund, is reportedly considering a significant cut to the amount of money it provides the trade groups on an annual basis.

According to figures seen by Reuters, each of the Big Four contributes approximately $132.3 million to fund the operations of the IFPI, RIAA, and other national recording industry trade groups. That money is used in part to fund the industry's antipiracy efforts—including the close to 30,000 file-sharing lawsuits filed by the record labels in the US alone.

The IFPI confirmed to Reuters that it was working through its annual budget-setting process, and "as one would expect in this market, there is a focus on efficiencies and savings." The IFPI wouldn't provide any details beyond that to Reuters, and neither it nor the RIAA has responded to Ars Technica's requests for comment.

With music revenues dropping with no end in sight, despite the increased popularity of online sales, all of the Big Four labels are being faced with tough budget choices. The industry has been quick to lay the blame for its tough economic times squarely at the feet of pirates, but there are other factors at work too.

Ars Technica
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TiVo to bust out of the living room and onto your PC
By Eric Bangeman
November 28, 2007 - 12:31PM CT

TiVo is poised to break out from the confines of the set-top box and into the PC. The DVR maker and Nero, creators of the popular CD- and DVD-burning software, are partnering to bring TiVo to upcoming versions of Nero.

The newly announced agreement means that TiVo's much-loved interface and ease of use will be available to owners of any PC with a TV tuner card or USB dongle. The Nero deal is a first for TiVo. The company's biggest product is its lineup of set-top boxes, including the TiVo Series 3 and the newer TiVo HD.

After its biggest customer, DirecTV, stopped offering TiVos as part of a move to DVR products in-house, TiVo began work on porting its software to third-party boxes. Comcast has begun deploying TiVo-powered DVRs to some customers, and boxes for Cox customers should arrive sometime next year.

"This agreement provides TiVo with an opportunity to deliver its interface and differentiated feature set globally via the PC, enabling TiVo to use all avenues of mass distribution—from consumer electronics, to cable and satellite boxes and soon, the PC," said TiVo CEO Tom Rogers.

Ars Technica
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Quiet Riot Lead Singer Kevin Dubrow Found Dead at 52
November 26, 2007

LAS VEGAS — Kevin Dubrow, lead singer for the 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot that scored a hit with "Cum on Feel the Noize," was found dead in a Las Vegas home. He was 52. The cause was not immediately known. A neighbor summoned police and paramedics Sunday to the house where he was pronounced dead, police and coroner's officials said.

There was no forced entry, and no suspicious circumstances were reported, police Officer Jose Montoya said Monday. Quiet Riot was perhaps best known for its 1983 cover of "Cum on Feel the Noize." The song, featuring Dubrow's powerful, gravelly voice, appeared on the band's album "Metal Health" -- which was the first by a metal band to reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart. DuBrow recorded his first solo album in 2004, "In for the Kill," and the band's last studio CD, "Rehab," came out in October 2006.

"I can't even find words to say," Quiet Riot drummer Frank Banali wrote on his Web site. "Please respect my privacy as I mourn the passing and honor the memory of my dearest friend Kevin DuBrow." Determination of the cause of death was pending an autopsy and toxicology results, Clark County coroner's spokeswoman Samantha Charles said.

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The insanity of France's anti-file-sharing plan
By Eric Bangeman
November 25, 2007 - 11:06PM CT

It's hard to engage in file-sharing if you don't have any Internet access. That's the threat behind a new memorandum of understanding between the government, ISPs, and Big Content in France that would see repeat P2P infringers lose their Internet connections. In exchange, the French music industry would make its French-language archive freely available available sans DRM.

In addition, DVDs would be on store shelves within six months of a film's theatrical release, instead of the current seven and a half months. The proposal is backed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and arose from the findings of a independent review commission appointed by Sarkozy shortly after taking office. That commission was headed up by the chairman of French consumer electronics retailer FNAC, Denis Olivennes.

Given his position, it's not surprising that Olivennes is no friend to ISPs and fans of P2P. He recently authored La gratuité, c'est le vol: Quand le piratage tue la culture, in which he argued that P2P not only harmed retailers, as well as the music and film industries, but also directly impacted French culture by reducing the amount of tax income from movies and cable television. P2P users are killing French culture, he says.

It should be no surprise, then, that the plan's trade-offs fall almost entirely in the favor of Big Content to the detriment of just about everyone else, including people who don't use P2P software. Like it or not, the total cost of Internet service will rise because French ISPs have signed on to the plan.

Ars Technica
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Hollywood giants sue Chinese Internet site
November 22, 2007 - 1:14 PM PST

Five Hollywood studios have sued a Chinese online service and Internet cafe they accuse of offering pirated downloads of Pirates of the Caribbean and other hit films, state media reported on Thursday.

Beijing-based Jeboo.com and an Internet cafe in Shanghai face a legal showdown with Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios, the Xinhua news agency reported. The filmmakers allege Jeboo.com created software the cafe used to run a movie download business, and they are demanding 3.2 million yuan ($432,000) in compensation, Xinhua said.

Jeboo.com promotes itself as "My online cinema" and claims to be China's biggest film download provider with close to 30,000 movies and television series customers can copy onto computers. A company official, Xie Jiangping, "refused to comment on whether it had violated the film companies' copyright," said Xinhua.

A statement on the Jeboo.com Web site says its vast range of entertainment is "legally obtained" through "content providing partners" who sign copyright contracts. The case to be heard in Shanghai promises to be one more skirmish in a battle of words and legal threats between China and the United States, which says the rough-and-tumble Asian economy does far too little to stop commercial pirates.

CNET News
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Big Content asks presidential candidates for more restrictive copyright laws
By Ryan Paul
November 21, 2007 - 09:33AM CT

The Copyright Alliance, which counts the MPAA and RIAA amongst its members, has sent letters and questionnaires to presidential candidates in an effort to determine where they stand on issues relating to intellectual property law.

In a copy of the letter seen by Ars, Copyright Alliance executive director Patrick Ross says he speaks "on behalf of the 11 million Americans employed in the creative industries," and asserts that piracy reduction is essential. "The future of our creative output in the United States is at stake in the 2008 presidential election," the letter to the candidates says.

"It is critical not only for members of the creative community but also for the US economy to ensure that copyrights are respected and piracy is reduced. We are asking you to let us know what you would do to help preserve one of America's greatest strengths, its creative community."

A questionnaire attached to the letter is written in a manner that reflects the Copyright Alliance's agenda and is clearly intended to serve as an instrument of persuasion. The introduction to the questionnaire states that "the livelihood of the next generation, and America's global competitiveness, will increasingly depend on the strong copyright protection that allows creativity to be rewarded."

Ars Technica
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UK retailers to record labels: DRM is killing us
By Ryan Paul
November 21, 2007 - 08:57AM CT

In response to declining music sales in the UK, the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) has called for the music industry to put an end to DRM. The organization-which represents retailers who sell music and DVDs-blames draconian digital copy protection technologies for the slow growth of the digital music market.

Consumers are increasingly dissatisfied with copy protection systems that erode fair use rights and impose limitations on where and how content can be used. To make matters worse, market fragmentation has led to the emergence of incompatible DRM formats which often confuse consumers and leave them wondering whether or not the content they buy will work on all of their electronics devices.

That makes file-sharing more attractive for some consumers. Many companies in the recording industry still refuse to adjust their business models to account for consumers' preferences when it comes to DRM, believing instead that the near-ubiquitous practice of file-sharing can be abolished with more draconian copy protection mechanisms and litigation.

Music retailers appear to be more in touch with consumer expectations and see a very different picture. peaking on behalf of UK music retailers, ERA director Kim Bayley told the Financial Times this week that the copy protection mechanisms are "stifling growth and working against the consumer interest."

Ars Technica
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Total HD dual-format discs unlikely to ever see the light of day
By Eric Bangeman
November 20, 2007 - 01:01PM CT

Once touted as a way of dampening the HD format wars, Warner's Total HD discs have been put on the back burner yet again, and it now looks as though the dual-format discs will never see the light of day. Announced at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Total HD was touted as an optimal solution for consumers confused by the HD format wars, as they would contain HD DVD content on one side and Blu-ray on the other.

A Warner Home Entertainment Group executive recently said that Total HD has been set aside once again. "The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold," WHEC SVP Jim Noonan told High-Def Digest. "We're the only studio producing content in both formats. If we were to put out Total HD with just our titles, it wouldn't really provide the solution to our retail partners that it was intended to provide."

Noonan also cited concerns that retailers wouldn't have enough shelf space for Total HD titles, what with DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray already duking it out for prime real estate in big-box retailers. Of the six major US studios, three of them are Blu-ray only, two are in the HD DVD camp, and Warner is alone in supporting both formats.

Paramount had originally decided to support both formats, but after extensive lobbying from Toshiba and the HD DVD Promotional Group (including massive wads of cash), the studio decided to forego Blu-ray releases altogether.

Ars Technica
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Bare shops redo of 'Green Acres'
By Nellie Andreeva
Nov 19, 2007

Veteran TV helmer Richard L. Bare, who directed all 168 episodes of CBS' 1960s sitcom "Green Acres," said he has acquired the rights to remake the series for TV from the widow of "Acres" creator Jay Sommers.

Bare is hoping that the classic TV series will appeal to the networks which are short of original material as the writers strike continues. Bare calls his timing going out with "Acres" during the writers strike "coincidental" but said that it helps his chances. "Studios are going to be searching for properties that have been written and ready to go into production without upsetting WGA in any way," he said.

Bare said he already has a pilot written by veteran scribe William Justice Forbes that takes place a month after the 1971 finale of the series, which starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a New York attorney and his wife who try to live as genteel farmers in the bizarre community of Hooterville.

The Hollywood Reporter

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RIAA told to show cause why .edu subpoenas shouldn't be quashed
By Eric Bangeman
November 18, 2007 - 10:49PM CT

A federal judge in Washington, DC, has handed the RIAA another setback in its campaign against on-campus file-sharing. In Arista v. Does 1-19, a case brought against 19 George Washington University students by the Big Four record labels, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered the RIAA to show cause why the ex parte subpoenas issued to GWU shouldn't be quashed.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly's order comes in response to a motion filed by Doe number three last week. In that motion, the unnamed student asked the judge to quash the subpoena, arguing that the RIAA was relying on the wrong law to obtain the subpoena, and furthermore, that there was no applicable law that authorized the issue of ex parte subpoenas to colleges and universities.

The RIAA typically relies on the Cable Communications Policy Act to obtain the names and addresses of suspected file-sharers in its lawsuits. Doe three argued that, since GWU is a university and not a cable provider, the CCPA could not be used to authorize a subpoena. Doe three's argument followed a ruling in Interscope v. Does 1-7, a case brought against seven students at the College of William and Mary.

The judge in that case told the RIAA that the CCPA wasn't applicable, and that the only avenue available to it was the DMCA. One problem: the RIAA never issued any takedown notices, which are required by the DMCA before a lawsuit can be filed. And it looks like there's no way a DMCA notice could be issued in a campus file-sharing case. Only entities that host, cache, or transmit infringing content can be served with DMCA takedown notices, and GWU did none of the above.

Ars Technica
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Sirius, XM OK merger deal
By Paul Bond
Nov 14, 2007 - 3:40 p.m. PT

Shareholders of the two U.S. satellite radio firms on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a merger, though their plans still face regulatory scrutiny amid significant objection from traditional radio broadcasters.

Sirius Satellite Radio said more than 96% of its voting shareholders were in favor of the plan to give 4.6 Sirius shares for each XM share and split the combined company 50-50. XM said more than 99.8% of shares voted were in favor.

News of the vote sent shares of each company higher on Tuesday, with Sirius up 6.5% to $3.63 and XM up 9.7% to $15.06. The U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC must approve the merger, and XM and Sirius executives repeatedly have said that they expect such approval by year's end.

Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said he would sue if the FCC blocked the proposed merger. The same day shareholders voted their approval, former FCC chairman Reed Hundt wrote in support of the plan, saying that a combined Sirius-XM could inspire "the elephant-like industry" of traditional radio to improve its offerings amid increased competition.

The Hollywood Reporter
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