Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the world. It was once so rich that Concorde used to fly from Caracas to Paris. But in the last three years its economy has collapsed. Hunger has gripped the nation for years. Now, it’s killing people and animals that are dying of starvation. The Venezuelan government knows, but won’t admit it!!! Four in five Venezuelans live in poverty. People queue for hours to buy food. Much of the time they go without. People are also dying from a lack of medicines. Inflation is at 82,766% and there are warnings it could exceed one million per cent by the end of this year. Venezuelans are trying to get out. The UN says 2.3 million people have fled the country - 7% of the population.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Europe Court: Copyright Holders Can Demand Pirates' Personal Information

Europe Court: Copyright Holders Can Demand Pirates' Personal Information

Hollywood Studios Lose High Court Appeal in Landmark Australian Piracy Case

STORY: Hollywood Studios Lose High Court Appeal in Landmark Australian Piracy Case
In what could prove a precedent-setting case, the court ruled in favor of five Swedish publishers who filed suit against Swedish Internet service provider ePhone to force it to hand over the name and address of a user who allegedly uploaded 27 audio books to an FTP server, from where they were illegally distributed online. The case went all the way to Sweden's supreme court.

In their ruling, the European judges said private data could be used in copyright cases if the collection of the information was allowed by national law in individual European Union member states. Currently the law varies greatly between individual European countries as to when use of such personal data is justified
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SAG-AFTRA Moves Toward Halting Music Video Work

2:43 PM PDT 4/25/2012 by Jonathan Handel

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Like a steamy music video, the fight to unionize dancers in that often sweat-infused art form is heating up. Looking to up the tempo of negotiations from 17th century minuet to something a little more cha-cha-cha, SAG-AFTRA on Wednesday advised members that the national board might issue a “Do Not Work Notice” at its May 19-20 meeting.

The new union says it may issue a Do Not Work order next month, days before talks with the labels resume. The decision on an order will send a signal to studios, commercial producers and even talent agents.

Although the member advisory didn’t name the targeted employers, the negotiations have been with Sony Music, UMG, Warner, EMI, Disney and their subsidiary labels. A notice, if issued, would not apply to music work by recording artists -- i.e., major pop stars and other singers -- or to recording artists already contractually obligated to do music videos.

The advisory said that the labels “have failed to agree to some of the most basic contract terms,” among them guaranteed access to water and toilet facilities, proper safety protections for hard surface dancing, overtime provisions, health and retirement contributions and standardized rates of pay.

The goal, said the advisory, is “safety and dignity on the job.”

The advisory came as a result of a unanimous recommendation by the union’s executive committee at a meeting during the weekend in New York. Negotiations began in June. Bargaining sessions have been intermittent, with the most recent sessions Jan. 11-12. The next talks are scheduled for May 30-31, a union spokesperson confirmed.

The national board is scheduled to meet and consider the executive committee’s recommendation next month. That timing puts pressure on the board to issue a Do Not Work order. Without one, the union negotiators would walk into talks 10 days later against a backdrop of their own board failing to follow through on the positioning suggested by Wednesday’s notice.

That would risk sending a signal of weakness not only to the record labels but also to the commercial producers -- with whom negotiation start in the fall -- and also the studios and networks. Even talent agents will be watching because of the possibility that their own relationship with the new union will be renegotiated at some point. That prospect arises from the fact that SAG’s deal with the talent agents ended in 2002 while AFTRA’s is still in effect.

All of this means that the newness of the union raises the stakes in negotiations over what will be a small contract if one is achieved.

A middle ground between issuing an immediate Do Not Work order and none at all might be an order with an effective date several weeks in the future, and contingent on failure to reach a deal by that date. That’s an approach that might light a fire under the talks without immediately disrupting work.

In any event, if the national board authorizes an order, it would amount to a music video strike against the labels. According to the member advisory, the order would apply to SAG-AFTRA members working as dancers, singers, choreographers, cameo performers, models, actors and most other talent. Violating a Do Not Work order can lead to discipline, up to and including expulsion from the union.

The executive committee’s recommendation came about a month after the AFTRA national board, meeting March 24, authorized a Do Not Work order. More colorfully, on Jan. 6, dancers picketed in three cities, with a flash mob-style dance-in and rally at Sony Music in Beverly Hills drawing about 150 people.

That action was sponsored by AFTRA and the Dancers’ Alliance, described as “a grass-roots organization dedicated to educating dancers and building solidarity in the dance community.”

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Deals up at Beijing fest: +87%

Deals up at Beijing fest
Fest organizers say deals signed this year up 87%
By CLIFFORD COONAN

The organizers of the Beijing Film Festival have said that the value of deals signed at this year's event, which wraps Saturday, is up 89% to 5.27 billion yuan ($476 million).
There were pacts involving 21 film projects signed at the fest, with six of them co-productions.

More than 600 shingles attended the fest, with more than 2,000 biz figures involved.

Local giant China Film Group announced a pact with the New Deal Studios to co-produce pics in China, including a war movie helmed by Fang Gangliang, which would serve as a test project. "This project is to see if the two parties can collaborate well. We are looking toward a j.v. at our production base in Huairou," said Lan Shujin, chief representative at China Film Group's L.A. office.

Local shingle Galloping Horse formally announced its link up with the vfx and CG animation company Digital Domain to form Digital Domain Galloping Horse Studio. The agreement includes a license for the new j.v. to use Digital Domain's technology for converting images into 3D.

The two also formally bowed their collaboration on "The Legend of Tembo."

Le Vision Pictures said it has picked up mainland Chinese distribution rights to Lionsgate's "The Expendables 2" and plans a day-and-date with its U.S. release on Aug. 17. The first pic in the franchise took $32 million in 2010.

The org said it intended to make the fest the region's main fest, reflecting the growing significance of the Chinese film market, which is reckoned to have overtaken Japan this year to become the second biggest B.O. market in the world.

"We are aiming to develop the Beijing festival into the biggest film festival and film market in Asia in three to five years," said Pang Wei, deputy director of Beijing's Municipal Bureau of Radio, Film and Television.

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Russian Online Video Service ivi.ru Inks Deals with Hollywood Majors...

ivi.ru became the first company in Eastern Europe to have licensing deals with all of the majors.

MOSCOW -- The Russian company ivi.ru has become the first online video service in Eastern Europe to have signed agreements with all the Hollywood majors.
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The company said in a statement that it had finalized the latest in a series of licensing deals with the majors and now is offering to its users 65,000 items of video content, including that licensed from 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures and NBC Universal.

"The reached agreements are an important step for the development of the legitimate video market in Russia and fighting piracy in the digital content industry," Oleg Tumanov, chairman of the board and managing director of ivi.ru, said in a statement. "The partnership with Hollywood's leading studios is opening up new opportunities and creating advantages for our users and for the sector in general."

In the near future, 30 out of 50 all-time box office champions are to be made available to ivi.ru users, the company said.

ivi.ru is Russia's leading online video service, with a market share of about 30 percent, according to the research group Romir Gallup International. It uses a combination of ad-sponsored, pay-per-view and subscription models. Recent box office hits are available to the service's users at 79 roubles ($2.7) per movie.

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Nielsen study finds 'second screen' viewing enhances TV experience...

When viewers watch a TV program with a tablet device, they tend to check their email, hunt for sports scores or seek additional information about the show or a commercial they were watching on the big screen.

A new report by Nielsen Co., released Friday, underscores what network television researchers have been preaching for more than a year: that "second screen viewing" appears to augment the TV viewing experience rather than steal away viewers.

Nielsen's State of the Media: Advertising & Audiences report found that men, when watching TV and using a tablet simultaneously, were more likely than women to look for information related to a TV program they were watching (39% versus 34%). Women were more inclined to seek information related to a television commercial (24% versus 21%).

Not surprisingly, teenagers with tablets were far more apt to visit a social media site while watching TV than were older baby boomers and seniors (62% versus 33%).

The report also found cultural differences in TV watching and the use of digital video recorders. Nielsen said that white TV viewers use digital video recorders on a daily basis twice as much as any other group, while Asian Americans appear to spend a higher proportion of their overall TV time watching their previously recorded programs.

Adults age 25 to 54 appear to be heavily influenced by advertising. Nielsen said that demographic group was 23% more likely than the average U.S. Internet user to follow a brand through social networking sites, and 29% more likely to purchase a product online that had been featured on TV.

Finally, teenagers used a game console for eight minutes a night, on average -- more than twice as much as the general TV population.

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Euro Data Protection Group Attacks ACTA...

The independent authority warns that the multinational anti-piracy treaty could violate human rights and European law.

COLOGNE, Germany - An independent advisory group has warned that ACTA, the multinational anti-piracy treaty which the European Parliament is set to vote into law later this year, could violate European laws protecting privacy and human rights.

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The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), an independent authority that advises European bodies on data protection issues, said that the treaty, as written, is too vague and could result in the violation of individual rights if passed unchanged.
ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a multinational treaty that aims to create a new global governing body to regulate and enforce copyright laws. The agreement has been signed by the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia and South Korea, among others, and was unanimously approved by the countries of the European Union in January this year.
But in an opinion published this week, the EDPS said ratifying ACTA could open the doors to indiscriminate or widespread monitoring of users' Internet behavior and electronic communications which could violate Europe's charter of fundamental rights.
In particular, the group said ACTA does not clearly define what behavior would be criminalized under the treaty and who would be tasked with enforcing it. EDPS warned that if the treaty was interpreted too widely, it could criminalize private, non-profit data sharing in a way that could violate freedom of speech and information laws. It also expressed concern that vague language in the treaty meant that non-judicial bodies could potentially carry out widespread, indiscriminate sweeps of Internet traffic, fishing for suspicious behavior.
"While more international cooperation is needed for the enforcement of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, the means envisaged must not come at the expense of the fundamental rights of individuals," said Giovanni Buttarelli, an assistant at the EDPS. "A right balance between the fight against IP infringements and the rights to privacy and data protection must be respected. It appears that ACTA has not been fully successful in this respect."
If the European Parliament votes to approve ACTA, the treaty will still have to be ratified by individual European countries before coming into force.
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CinemaCon 2012: Industry Addresses Complaints About Dark Screens With Laser Ligh

Martin Scorsese warns theater owners that if movies aren't projected with enough light, audiences won't "come back."

LAS VEGAS — A demonstration of new laser illuminated projection technology was presented at the CinemaCon exhibitors convention on Wednesday, where it was offered as one solution to the problem of theater screens that appear to be too dark.

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That issue has cropped up more and more lately, particularly in situations where 3D systems and glasses reduce the brightness of a movie.
"If [cinema screens] are too dark and you can't see, why should they come back and watch another 3D film?" Hugo director Martin Scorsese asked at a filmmaker session at the convention in which he took part.
He told exhibitors, "We have to work together and show [movies] in the best possible light."
A number of vendors are recommending developing laser illuminated projection technology to make the screens brighter.
While no concrete plans were announced, some in the industry believe laser-based projection technology could begin to reach theaters by the end of 2013.
A laser light panel on Wednesday kicked off with a demonstration of a single prototype, laser illuminated Barco projector that allowed viewers to see various clips in 2D, 3D, 24fps, 48fps, 2K and 4K on a 70ft. white screen from Harkness. Typically, two projectors are used to light large 70 ft. screens.
Proponents say laser light offers additional advantages, including lower operating costs, reduced power consumption compared to the xenon lamps currently in use, and increased system life spans.
But challenges remain.
Noting that the theater industry is currently in a digital cinema transition costing an estimated $2.5 billion, John McDonald, executive vp of U.S. operations at AMC Theatres, said, "We'll need to work though economic models. There will be capital costs to make the transition."
Regulatory issues also are a challenge, because the FDA monitors the use of lasers. The recently formed Laser Illuminated Projection Association (LIFA) — which now represents roughly 20 companies — is working to lower the FDA requirements for laser use, arguing that such light sources are "no more dangerous" that today's Xenon lamps.
LIPA chairman Peter Lude, who is an executive vp at Sony and president of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, said he is "optimistic" that regulatory changes can be made though he added that it could be a "long battle."
Jim Reisteter, general manager of digital cinema at projector maker NEC told exhibitors this is a "glimpse at the future."
"We are not trying to bombard you with technology for technology's sake," added Michael Esch, senior director of entertainment at Christie.
In a related development, last week at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, technology company Laser Light Engines conducted a laser illuminated projection demonstration with Sony, using LLE technology and a Sony 4K projector.
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Televisa saw quarterly net income nearly double on strong growth from its broadcast and pay TV units

The Spanish-language media powerhouse has positioned itself to conquer U.S. Hispanic market.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican media group Televisa saw quarterly net income nearly double on strong growth from its broadcast and pay TV units.

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The nation's top network reported a first-quarter net profit of 1.5 billion pesos (about $118 million), up from 780 million pesos a year ago. Net sales rose 15 percent to 15.2 billion pesos, driven by solid ad sales from its over-the-air channels. Televisa controls an estimated 70 percent of the broadcast TV market here.
The Mexican media giant's pay TV and telecom division also came up big, thanks to increases in subscriber bases at satcaster Sky and Televisa's three cable TV outfits.

As one of the world's leading producers of Spanish-language content, Televisa has boosted its presence in the U.S. Latino market in recent years. In addition to an existing program license agreement with its stateside partner Univision, Televisa announced in January that it had formed a programming and development partnership with Lionsgate, which includes plans to create English-language content.
The pact came two years after Lionsgate joined forces with Televisa to create Pantelion, the U.S. theatrical distributor behind the Will Ferrell vehicle Casa de mi Padre. Pantelion acquires and produces feature films targeting Latino audiences.

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French FR > Arabic Classic translators needed.

French FR > Arabic Classic and Arabic Classic > French FR translators needed.
French FR NATIVE only.

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If interested email us here your current rates/resume if you meet these requirements. This is a long term job.

If you have not already registered on our site, please fill out our online application on our main site: www.chicas-translations.com

ONLY TRANSLATORS WHO FILL OUT OUR ONLINE APPLICATION WILL BE CONSIDERED.

A short translation test is required by the client that will have a look at all the selected resumes and translation.

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English UK > Arabic Classic translators needed.

English UK > Arabic Classic and Arabic Classic > English UK translators needed.

English UK NATIVE only.

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If interested email us here your current rates/resume if you meet these requirements. This is a long term job.

If you have not already registered on our site, please fill out our online application on our main site: www.chicas-translations.com

ONLY TRANSLATORS WHO FILL OUT OUR ONLINE APPLICATION WILL BE CONSIDERED.

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Cinedigm's McGurk Proposes 'Narrowcasting' Model For Digital Cinema

Digital cinema "can be a white knight for the struggling indie film business."

LAS VEGAS — Cinedigm Chairman and CEO Chris McGurk asserted that by using a "narrowcasting" programming model, there are a string of potential opportunities afforded by digital cinema, including increasing exhibition revenue, distribution cost saving, and operational and management efficiencies.
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Speaking Sunday during his keynote at the NAB's Technology Summit on Cinema, he noted that about 5% of seats are occupied in theaters Monday thru Thursday, and roughly 15% annually. "That means theaters are empty upwards of 85% of available times on average, and still the domestic box office is a more than $11 billion d business," he said, adding that even an incremental increase could result in a $1 billion business.

Noting that Cinedigm and cinema is "taking a page from the cable TV world," McGurk's proposed narrowcasting model would aim alternative content at target audiences such as kids, sports fans—or independent film enthusiasts.
Digital cinema "can be a white knight for the struggling indie film business," McGurk suggested. "Studios are releasing fewer independent films, creating a glut of indie films that can be narrowcast over a national footprint."
He added that digital cinema could also deliver a range of alternative content that is 3D, live or interactive.
McGurk believes that it is time to act, as digital cinema has reached a critical mass — in fact more than 50% of theaters worldwide and 67% in North America alone. This did not come without significant cost to the industry, the capital expenditures required were upwards of $1.6 billion dollars in North America alone, he said.
But McGurk believes filling seats is only half of what is needed — that the other "essential" half is to develop robust ancillary markets for the alternative content that could "account for two to fifteen times" the value of the box office.
He suggested profit sharing programs with the theater owners who would be partners in marketing efforts.
McGurk added that exhibitors are asking for more of this type content, saying that he has heard from theaters owners that "we need more indie films and alternative content like we need air."

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Visual Effects Artists Seeking to Unionize at Sony Imageworks...

IATSE Animation Guild reps will hold a lunch-hour meeting Friday in Culver City as the campaign to unionize VFX artists accelerates.

Call it a tale of three Sonys: the studio's live action crew members and its Sony Pictures Animation employees are unionized, but visual effects artists at sister facility Sony Pictures Imageworks are not – even though they work hand in glove on both live action product, such as next month's Men in Black III, and animated films like Smurfs 2, due out next year.

That's not sitting well with a group of SPI employees who feel that an entertainment job without overtime protections is a few pixels shy of a full deck and that the studio's health insurance and 401(k) are just sepia-toned substitutes for a full-color union pension and health plan.
Calling itself SpiUnion, the group described itself in an email to The Hollywood Reporter as "the first group of visual effects artists that is taking a stand and attempting to organize under a Collective Bargaining Agreement." That effort started at least a month ago, when they perplexed their estimated 400-500 coworkers by dropping union representation cards on workers' desks overnight throughout the company without explanation, walking the mostly empty halls in the wee hours as the cleaning crews filtered in.
Even late at night, a few of their colleagues were hard at work in their cubicles creating digital magic – so engrossed in their bitmaps that many didn't even look up when the union cards landed on their desks, according to an SpiUnion member who spoke with THR on condition of anonymity in order to avoid possible reprisals.
The member noted that these jobs for most "are more than work – they're a passion. There's nothing else we'd rather be doing."
But at the same time, the source added, "there's a lot of misery and apathy in the business," caused by the long hours, lack of sick days, frequently poor benefits and "the stress of not knowing if you'll have to move overseas for your next job."
SpiUnion started with about ten people, according to the source, and has since grown.
Friday, that campaign moves from blogging and nightwalking to something a bit less bleary-eyed as officials from the Animation Guild and its union parent, IATSE, hold a lunch-hour meeting Friday in Culver City to answer questions and attempt to persuade SPI employees and other VFX artists to sign the cards, which are a key step in unionizing the workforce.
According to the source, SpiUnion started organically from within and then contacted the union. The group called tomorrow's meeting "an important gauge to see where this movement is going."
A Sony spokesperson told THR "Sony Pictures respects employees' right to consider union representation and we have no further comment."
SPI employees, in contrast, had quite a bit of comment – both pro-union and against. In an interview on the Cartoon Brew website, the SpiUnion artists who were interviewed decried as "unbelievable" the amount of "`free,' `voluntary,' and off-the-books (overtime) worked (at SPI)."
That drew varying replies, including one that countered: "Imageworks pays you OT. It is one of the few companies that I know of that does so and according to state law. It is also one of the few companies that makes an effort to tell artists to not work for free. I hear this on a weekly basis, do not work OT unless approved, do not work beyond your approved hours."
In response, Animation Guild organizer Steve Kaplan posted an apparent acknowledgment that the situation may not be black and white: "Sure, Imageworks is treating you well. You get your decent wage and treatment," he said (a characterization that the SpiUnion source echoed).
"But," Kaplan added, "as history has shown, you can't count on that." A union contract, he argued, is an "enforceable vehicle that sets workplace standards and conditions."
History is complicated though: a failed 2003 attempt by the Animation Guild to organize SPI casts a shadow over the current effort. Kaplan acknowledged that in the prior effort, "the IA was (trying) to walk in and impose a contract on you," and said the approach would be different this time. "Organization has to stem from the artists within," he noted.
Kaplan, and IATSE representative Vanessa Holtgrewe, will be at the Friday meeting, which is open to all VFX workers, not just SPI employees.
The SpiUnion source who spoke to THR said that SPI, in the source's experience, complies with laws regarding overtime and holiday pay. But he/she said that this is not necessarily the case at other companies – and even at SPI, most employees don't have 401(k)'s and many don't have paid sick days, despite working 70 hour weeks.
The source expressed hope that union representation would bring pension and health benefits – and one day might possibly even enable negotiating a cap on working hours. Wages, in contrast, seem to be a much lesser concern at SPI, at least for experienced workers.
However – underscoring the difficulty of transnational labor organizing in a world where data and workers are mobile but laws are not – VFX wages are indeed a focus of campaign by IATSE Local 891 in Vancouver, while health insurance issues are less so, due to the existence of a national healthcare system in Canada.
The Local 891 effort would encompass, among other facilities, SPI's Vancouver operation, which SpiUnion says employs more than 100 VFX artists, a number the group says will soon rise to over 250. A small facility in Albuquerque is closing in July, while an SPI office in India focuses on more commodified work – match moving and rotoscoping – performed by lower paid workers.
The company's headquarters are in Culver City, as is the small unionized Sony Pictures Animation unit, which the Animation Guild says employs just 38 artists.
The VFX unionization effort is part of a somewhat broader phenomenon. Although it may seem like everyone in Hollywood has a union – and from dayplayers to directors, grips to gaffers, and screenwriters to sound designers, they do – there are nonetheless some occupations that don't.
In the case of VFX artists, organizing efforts over the years have been hindered by a laundry list of factors, including:
• the ease of subdividing and parceling out different VFX tasks to workgroups in different companies, cities, countries and continents, facilitated by high speed Internet connections;
• the diverse nature of the work, which crosses jurisdictional lines between groups such as the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839), Art Directors Guild (Local 800) and Cinematographers Guild (Local 600);
• rival organizing attempts by both IATSE and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBEW);
• the fact that the profession developed long after the heyday of unionization;
• the white collar, deskbound nature of the work;
• the parallels between VFX work and jobs in the historically non-union Internet and software industries; and
• the fact that VFX workers are one of the few groups who work for separate companies rather than directly for the producer – which renders irrelevant the fact that most major film and scripted television producers are signatories to the IATSE collective bargaining agreement.
Ironically, even though SPI seems to be viewed as treating its workers better than some other VFX shops, it may turn out to be a more logical starting point for unionization than its competitors, because it's a part or affiliate of a unionized enterprise, Sony Pictures, and has a unionized sister entity, Sony Pictures Animation.
In another recent development in VFX labor, Digital Domain CEO John Textor drew fire last month for boasting that via a new operation in Florida that it called Digital Domain Institute, "30% of the workforce at our digital studio down in Florida is not only going to be free, with student labor, it's going to be labor that's actually paying us for the privilege of working on our films."
Actors, meanwhile, have their own VFX unionization issues, relating to whether performance capture work for movies like Avatar is categorized as principal or background work. Producers take the latter point of view, which would allow them to pay lower minimums and no residuals. The matter is expected to be an issue in negotiations for the 2014 SAG-AFTRA contracts, but those talks won't take place for 18 months or more.

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Start-Up NimbleTV to Move Users' Pay TV Channels Online...

The company is testing a streaming service that wants to make more TV content available online, but the company says it wants to ensure that pay TV and content providers continue to get paid.

Pay TV operators have acknowledged that they have been slow to make available TV content online to their subscribers in the so-called TV Everywhere initiative.
Now, start-up NimbleTV plans to speed up the process by starting to make some consumers' pay TV packages available on the Web.
Unveiling its service on Monday, it called it "a game changing new subscription-based TV platform that for the first time enables customers to access all of their television from anywhere in the world, on any device."
The company, whose investors include venture capital firms Greycroft Partners and Tribeca Venture Partners, as well as media firm Tribune Co., will begin testing its service, which streams a complete pay TV subscription package of networks, with a limited number of users this week. The service also uses a virtual DVR that can record thousands of hours of content.
Unlike Netflix, the company isn't positioning itself as a potential alternative to cable or satellite TV providers, but simply offers to move their programming to digital devices.
"NimbleTV is based on the simplest idea: customers should be able to access the TV they pay for wherever they happen to be," said NimbleTV CEO Anand Subramanian. "Today, the groundbreaking technology behind our service makes `TV everywhere' a reality - with more options, high-quality viewing on any device, watchable from anywhere."
In a nod to entertainment and pay TV companies, he also emphasized: "Our model is predicated on the belief that providers and content producers should be paid. NimbleTV is a solution that's both consumer friendly and industry friendly."
Asked about Aereo, the start-up backed by Barry Diller's IAC that repackages broadcast channels into a subscription streaming service, Subramanian told the New York Times that while his company doesn't need pay TV operators to approve its service, NimbleTV "went to extreme lengths" to comply with laws.
The NimbleTV test run will come in New York City and will be limited to a suite of 26 networks that the company will pay for, the Times said. NimbleTV's monthly fee will likely be around $20, according to the paper.
The company said in a statement that its price will include the provider subscription at cost, plus a fee for services, such as subscription set up and management, as well as the functionalities of portability and DVR services. "Customers make payments directly to their providers with NimbleTV acting as a payment service," it explained.

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Hong Kong Film Piracy on YouTube Amounts to $308 Million Loss...

Copyright-infringing videos of over 200 films found on world's largest video-sharing website

HONG KONG – Severe copyright infringement of Hong Kong films is rife on YouTube, with pirated footage of over 200 Hong Kong films found on the world's largest video-sharing website, amounting to an estimated loss of over HK$2.4 billion ($308 million) to the local film industry, according to the Hong Kong Motion Pictures Industry Association (MPIA). MPIA members urged YouTube and other video-sharing websites to enforce the German court ruling last Friday (April 20) to implement measures to restrict content that infringe copyright.

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The recent local box office hit Love in the Buff was found to be uploaded in its entirety, directly affecting the theatrical gross of the film, a situation that the association called "extremely severe" in a statement.
The videos were taken down after a formal complaint made to YouTube by Media Asia, the copyright holder of Love in the Buff.
But YouTube did not act promptly when contacted by Media Asia to remove the illegally obtained uploaded Buff film, taking days for the removal. John Chong, producer of the film, commented in the statement that YouTube showed "an extreme lack of efficiency in the removal of the pirated videos, but was not responsible for any loss incurred due to the delay in the removal." Previously, the website operator had immediately taken down pirated film material when contacted by the copyright holder.
"YouTube repeatedly requested the copyright holder to prove that they are the holder in order to remove the pirated videos of Love in the Buff, while they allow anyone to claim to be the copyright holder when uploading the videos. It's very unreasonable," MPIA CEO Brian Chung told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview. "The pirated videos on YouTube greatly hurt the theatrical performance of the film."
Chong believed the German court ruling on Friday for YouTube to restrict videos that might violate copyright should be enforced for YouTube and other video-sharing websites at the earliest possibility.
In view of the pirated video of Buff on YouTube, MPIA members, which are made up of representatives from most of Hong Kong's film studios, have searched and found in three days over 200 films illegally uploaded on to YouTube, including past and recent Hong Kong Film Awards winners: A Simple Life, The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, Echoes of the Rainbow, and Shaolin Soccer. Blockbuster Ip Man and its sequel were split into 107 videos, while the pirated YouTube videos of clubbing drama Lan Kwai Fong and Jet Li's Fearless received 1.8 million and 1.4 million hits, respectively. A fight scene from Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon was viewed 4.8 million times.
With accumulated views of over 40 million, MPIA estimated a loss of over HK$2.4 billion to the Hong Kong film industry, based on an average cinema ticket price of HK$60.
"For a video-sharing website of this size and scope, YouTube must have censorship mechanisms to prohibit the uploading of illegal material, such as child pornography or content of extreme violence," Chung added. "It makes no sense for the copyright owner of a current film release to upload the entire film on to YouTube, so how can YouTube allow just anyone to claim to be the copyright owner and show the whole film on their website?"
Chung said the association is not trying to single out YouTube, but the company's international visibility and accessibility has made the severity of the situation impossible for Hong Kong filmmakers to ignore. "YouTube, or any other video-sharing websites, should have a set of ethics in dealing with copyrighted material. It's unfair to the copyright owner," Chung said. "The U.S. has always set great store by the protection of intellectual property. As a company headquartered in the U.S., owned by Google, the world's largest internet search company, it turns out that it allows pirated content on its website. How would the U.S. view this situation?"
YouTube and its parent company Google have not yet replied to The Hollywood Reporter's request for comment.
MPIA members are now in discussion to determine a strategy to combat piracy online, but meanwhile, "due to the urgency and severity of the situation, we'd hope to raise awareness on it as soon as possible," Chung said.
While online piracy is an extension of the larger film piracy issue present since the 1990s, remarked Ip Man director Wilson Yip in the statement, he hoped for effective law enforcement to combat the issue. Free viewing of pirated films would pose an even more serious problem for the film industry, noted Lan Kwai Fong executive producer Patrick Tong, as it is nearly impossible to find the culprit responsible. "It's a harsh blow to the producers and investors, giving rise to a vicious circle of fewer and fewer investors, and a further weakening of the Hong Kong film industry."

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Monday, April 30, 2012

Europe Court: Copyright Holders Can Demand Pirates' Personal Information