CHICAS PRODUCTIONS: August 2012

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, August 27, 2012

How to Survive Film Festival Season...

Heading off to Venice, Toronto, Telluride or Deauville? Celebrity health experts share their tips for staying in one piece during the festival frenzy.

Those summer nights are over, and film festival season is kicking off. Whether you're saying "Ciao, Venice," "Bonjour, Deauville," "Hello, Telluride" or "Oh, Canada" for TIFF, you'll be spending the next few weeks out of the office and likely in the air, in screenings and meetings and rushing from one red carpet to the next. Not sleeping enough, indulging in local delicacies and schmoozing your way through endless glasses of champagne are part of the game, but that doesn't mean you need to sacrifice your health entirely. Award-winning vegan chef and author Ani Phyo and celebrity yoga and pilates powerhouse Kristin McGee share their insider tips for surviving the fall festival season.

New York Film Festival Unveils New Midnight Movies Sidebar

Michael Rymer's 'Face to Face' to Launch New Film Festival Flix Program

New York Film Festival to Honor Nicole Kidman, Richard Peña

Richard Gere Named Golden Icon at Zurich Film Festival

New York Film Festival to Offer First Look at Oliver Stone's Doc About U.S. History

1) EATING HEALTHY
Bring a blender: That's the advice from Phyo, whose clients include Maroon 5, Moby and Carrie Ann Moss. She recommends packing a small travel blender like the Tribest Personal Blender that is, she points out, "smaller than a pair of shoes." Pack it into the PB deluxe or regular carrying case specifically designed for travel and remember to pack a power transformer and adapter if heading overseas.

Phyo's advice: "Before you leave, find out if there are any local markets and ask your hotel if they have a fridge you can store a few things in. Then just grab some greens, superfood powders and any fruits, and you can just blend in your room. When you're really busy, blending is great. Blending means it's chewing up the food for us, so that places way less digestive stress on our system, and the nutrients can be taken to the parts of body that need nutrition, giving us more energy."
For snacks, Phyo recommends on-the-go-friendly produce including carrots, jicama, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, apples, oranges, lemons and limes and easy-to-pack snacks like Nori -- "It's a great seaweed for mineralizing, helps with heavy metal radiation and is filled with electrolytes. You can take a whole packet of 20 sheets and stick it in the outside compartment of your carry-on luggage." Also wheatgrass and rice protein powders, dried fruits like goji berries or superfoods such as maca or chlorella that are "really full of antioxidants and slow down the signs of aging. Nuts are great too. They're high in Vitamin E antioxidant and building collagen in the skin."
Pack a small jar of Rawmio almond or hazelnut gourmet chocolate spreads for a healthy alternative to those Nutella breakfasts in Venice, or make your own protein bars ahead of time from Phyo's new book Ani's 15-Day Fat Blast. Just mix almonds, protein powder, maca powder, dates, a pinch of salt and even some cacao powder or vanilla and goji berries together, pack into a baking tray, slice into bar shapes and carry with you throughout the week.

2) TAKING CARE OF YOUR BODY
Stretching is key. "When you first arrive at your hotel, do legs up the wall pose to let the blood recirculate and alleviate tight lower back and compressed legs from a long flight," recommends McGee, whose clients include Tina Fey, Steve Martin and LeAnn Rimes. Before heading out at night, she says, "Do a few sun salutations in the hotel room to perk yourself up and stretch out your entire body, especially your feet in upward dog and downward dog knowing you'll be cramming them in high-heel shoes or standing on them all night."
Even while sitting on a plane or in a long screening, there are still ways to stretch out. McGee recommends "eagle arms while seated, simple twists in your chair or tolasana, which is picking your butt up and hovering in the air." Even at events, McGee says: "Find a quiet corner to do a few rounds of alternate nostril breathing. It will oxygenate the brain and keep you alert for the premieres, showings and parties."

3) STAYING HYDRATED
Hydration is essential when on the go, especially during the trip to and from the festivals. "The plane is dehydrating. For every hour, drink one liter of water. Flying is aging and stressful on the body, so hydration is key," Phyo says.
Her recommendation? "Put a tablespoon of chia seeds into a liter bottle of water -- It's full of energy and very hydrating. Buy water before you get onto the plane, and mix a bag of chia seeds into them. It's the best trick ever."

And, if you can find some, drink as much juice as possible. "Green juices infuse the body with so many nutrients and enzymes. They make your skin glow -- they're better than a facial. Your inner body starts to radiate to your outer shell. It's just amazing," Phyo says of the liquid trend.

4) SLEEPING WELL
Sleep is a luxury at film festivals, so when there is a chance for some slumber, make it count. "Do a supine twist before going to bed to detox from all the cocktails and to work out the kinks in your lower back and shoulders from standing, mingling and holding drinks or posing for paparazzi all night long," McGee recommends. And if you're still having trouble sleeping, she says, "Lie in goddess pose with your hands on your belly and watch the breath rise and fall."

5) STAYING CALM
It's easy to forget to eat or sleep during festival season, but don't forget to breathe. Slip a travel yoga mat like Manduka's eKO Superlite into their brand-new Journey On collection bags designed for practicing on the run and do yoga in your room -- even five, 10 or 15-minute sessions -- thanks to Yogaglo.com. The site, which features top teachers from across the globe like New York's Elena Brower or the Paris-based Marc Holzman, even has special sections for travel yoga, the immune system or stress reduction that likely will come in handy over the next few weeks. Or give the computer a break and grab Art of Attention, Brower's brand-new book with co-author Erica Jago, for more on and off the mat inspiration wherever in the world you are.

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Nigerian film biz on the rebound

Nigerian film biz on the rebound
As fundamentalism ebbs, audiences return
By CHRISTOPHER VOURLIAS

KANO, NIGERIA -- Long before the Islamic insurgency brought a wave of violence to northern Nigeria, filmmakers in the country's growing Hausa-language industry were taking up their own battle against a conservative crackdown.
The fight over an industry popularly known as "Kannywood" began more than a decade ago, when Sharia law was re-introduced after nearly a century-long hiatus in the predominantly Muslim Kano state. In the years since, Sharia has been a focal point in an ever-shifting battle between the government and an industry that, in borrowing from the Bollywood films that serve as its chief inspiration, relies on dance routines and sexual titillation to woo local audiences.

As prolific actor-director Ali Nuhu notes, the challenges posed by the law simply mirror the broader challenges facing a culture in transition, where an influx of Western popular entertainment is pushing boundaries, even as traditional values persist.

Rather than slow the industry, though, the government may have inadvertently boosted a biz that, according to the Motion Pictures Practitioners Assn. of Nigeria (Moppan), produces more than 300 films a year.

As with its better-known southern counterpart, Nollywood, the young Hausa-language industry grew out of modest beginnings in the 1990s, when the first locally produced homevideos started to appear.

By the turn of the millennium, an increasing number of filmmakers had turned away from the slow, family-based melodramas of their predecessors to produce films steeped in Bollywood-style song and dance.

Often the pics featured provocative outfits and dance moves. Though many went against the grain in the conservative Muslim north, the movies sold.

But they didn't come without their share of controversy. In 1999, a fatwa was issued against the producers of "Saliha?" a movie that features an apparently pious Muslim girl who engaged in premarital sex. Clerics in the northern state of Bauchi staged symbolic burnings of other offensive videos. The letters pages of local newspapers were often full of angry commentary from offended viewers.

With the passage of Sharia law in 2000, a state censorship board was introduced in Kano, and tasked with ensuring that local films were made in compliance with Islamic doctrine and traditional Hausa culture.

Filmmakers were expected to respect the "fundamental rules of engagement … between the sexes," says professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, a scholar of Hausa culture at Kano's Bayero U., making overt displays of affection and sexual suggestion taboo.

Helmers continued to produce movies -- and push the envelope -- in spite of the restrictions. The breaking point seemed to come in 2007, when a steamy cellphone video of actress Maryam Hiyana and her boyfriend went public.

A storm of protest followed, and the ensuing crackdown by the censorship board put a six-month moratorium on new productions in Kano. When the ban was lifted, a slate of new, tighter regulations was put in place, bringing the local industry to a standstill.

But the biz might have benefited in the long run. Smaller industries began to blossom in Kano's neighboring cities, allowing the centralized Hausa-language biz in Kano to branch out. And by the time filmmaking finally returned to Kano, the controversy had not only succeeded in provoking public outrage, but in piquing the interest of new viewers.

With a changing of the guard at the censorship board in 2011 leading to relaxed regulations, the industry is selling more DVDs than ever.

Still, boundaries often have been blurry, though most filmmakers grudgingly have complied, despite the challenges posed. Helmer Nuhu was once told to cut suggestive dance scenes from a movie. "There are limitations to what you can do as a filmmaker," he says. "The whole concept of moviemaking is to entertain the audience. If your immediate audience does not want this because they are Muslims, then you have to abide by what they actually want."

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

Judge Rules DGA Foreign Levies Reports Acceptable But Lawyer Claims They Don't '

The court finds that the guild is complying with a settlement agreement, dismissing plaintiff counsel's argument that more information should be required.

A California judge ruled Wednesday that the Directors Guild is complying with a 2008 settlement agreement requiring it to report certain data related to foreign royalties, brushing aside the motion of a lawyer who told the court that the DGA reports were all but incomprehensible.
RELATED TOPICS
•Labor
"We've engaged consultants," Neville Johnson of Johnson & Johnson LLP told The Hollywood Reporter. "But they say they can't make sense (of the DGA reports)." Johnson represents a class of non-DGA members who are entitled to receive foreign royalties paid out by the guild.
The DGA countered in a statement that it "has distributed more than $121 million in foreign levies, including over $13 million to more than 3,400 non-members." The guild added, "It was a hard-fought effort to attain these funds and we are very proud of our efforts."
Johnson's position is that even if the DGA is complying with the letter of the settlement agreement, it wasn't in tune with the spirit of the pact, and he urged Judge John Wiley to require more. The judge declined, notwithstanding Johnson's argument that since he maintained jurisdiction over the case, he should ensure that the information provided be clear and adequate.
But Wiley – in Johnson's words – said that "if you make a settlement agreement, that's all you get."
The judge's denial of Johnson's motion was "with prejudice," meaning that it can't be refiled. Johnson can, however, appeal, and said his office was deciding whether to do so. He has 60 days to decide and said it was likely that he would.
Foreign royalties are complex. Collection societies in certain countries collect the sums based on various government regulations, then remit a portion of the U.S.-destined payments to the DGA, WGA and SAG for payment to individual "authors" (i.e., writers and directors) and performers.
Another portion of the collected monies is paid to the U.S. studios or producers, who under U.S. law and customary entertainment contracts are deemed the authors of the movies, television shows and other audiovisual works at issue. The fact that monies are split between the studios and the individuals is a consequence of balancing the contrasting U.S. and foreign definitions of "author" and was arrived at in agreements between the guilds and studios in the early 1990s.
According to a geographic breakdown prepared by the WGA, 51 percent of the $147.5 million it's collected in the last 20 years came from Germany. Next, with 8 percent to 11 percent each, were France, Argentina, Switzerland and Spain. No other territory constituted more than 3 percent of the total.
More information can be found on the DGA, SAG-AFTRA and WGA West websites. The SAG-AFTRA royalties collected as of mid-2011 totaled under $21 million, or less than one-fifth of what the WGA and DGA collected. That's due in part to the fact that fewer countries provide for performers to receive foreign royalties than do for authors.
Foreign royalties are distinct from foreign residuals. The latter are computed according to the terms of the collective bargaining agreements between the unions and studios. As confusing as residuals – and especially foreign residuals – can be, foreign royalties are even murkier.
Whether the unions even have the right to collect such royalties, let alone on behalf of non-members and/or for movies and TV shows that aren't under their jurisdiction, was the subject of three class-action lawsuits – one against each union – filed in the mid-2000s.
Those lawsuits were settled, with the unions permitted to make collections and disbursements, subject to reporting. But for various reasons, the reporting requirements ended up being different for each union, notwithstanding the fact that all three lawsuits were assigned to the same L.A. Superior Court judge, Carl West. None of them is particularly detailed, however.
West ultimately retired and was succeeded on the case by Wiley. Johnson said that Wednesday's hearing was Wiley's first on the case and attributed his decision in part to not having been on the three cases for the more than half-decade that West was.
Johnson also failed to persuade the judge to award additional attorneys fees beyond what he had already received. Johnson told THR that he might seek to withdraw from the case as a result and have new counsel appointed.

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8K Ultra High Def TV Format Developed by Japan's NHK set to be Next Global Stand

Public broadcaster NHK to get international approval after public viewing demonstrations of the new format at London 2012.

TOKYO - Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) or Super Hi-Vision, an 8K system that delivers 16 times the resolution of current HD (high definition) technology, is set to be approved by the International Telecommunication Union as the next generation global television format.

London 2012: Public Broadcaster NHK Leading Olympics Coverage in Japan
NHK Research Arm To Be Honored by Broadcasters
NHK successfully demonstrated Super Hi-Vision in collaboration with the BBC, at public viewings during the 2012 Olympics of selected events in London, Tokyo and Washington D.C.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/london-olympics-2012-tv-355096
Developed by public broadcaster NHK at its award-winning Science & Technical Research Laboratories, along with electronics manufacturers Panasonic and Sharp, test broadcasts are scheduled to begin in Japan by 2020.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nhk-international-broadcasting-convention-award-345050
The new format can deliver images with 33 million pixels through 7,680 horizontal lines and 4,320 vertical lines, refresh rates of 120 frames per second, as well as 22.2 channel multi-dimensional sound.
With 4K televisions hitting the market, and content virtually non-existent, manufacturers will now have to begin aiming at the new 8K format, which is believed to be at the limit of what the human eye can process.
An NHK spokesperson declined to comment on the reports of approval of the new format by the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency.

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Why the Apple v. Samsung Ruling May Not Hold Up

By Pamela Jones - Groklaw

Late in the process yesterday at the Apple v. Samsung trial, when the parties and the judge were reviewing the jury verdict form, Samsung noticed that there were, indeed, inconsistencies in the jury's verdict form, a possibility Samsung anticipated [PDF]. Here's the jury's Amended Verdict Form [PDF], amended to fix the mistakes. Here's the original [PDF]. Here's the note [PDF] the jury sent to the judge when told to fix the inconsistencies. What are they, they asked? "Please let the jury know," they wrote in the only note ever sent in their deliberations, "of the inconsistencies we are supposed to deliberate on."

We sort of assumed that Friday's decision in the Apple vs Samsung trial wouldn't be the last we heard of the case. But Groklaw has gone through various quotes from the jurors and legal experts, and it looks like Samsung's going to have very strong grounds for appeal thanks to one wildly inconsistent jury.

In two instances, results were crazily contradictory, and the judge had to have the jury go back and fix the goofs. As a result the damages award was reduced to $1,049,343,540, ¹ down from $1,051,855,000. For just one example, the jury had said one device didn't infringe, but then they awarded Apple $2 million for inducement. In another they awarded a couple of hundred thousand for a device they'd ruled didn't infringe at all. This all was revealed by The Verge in its live blog coverage:

The jury appears to have awarded damages for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE infringing—$219,694 worth—but didn't find that it had actually infringed anything....A similar inconsistency exists for the Intercept, for which they'd awarded Apple over $2 million

Intercept: "The jury found no direct infringement but did find inducement" for the '915 and '163 utility patents. If a device didn't infringe, it would be rather hard for a company to induce said non-existant infringement.

Obviously, something is very wrong with this picture. The Verge also reported that the jury foreman, who is a patent holder himself [this appears to be his patent, "Method and apparatus for recording and storing video information"], told court officials that the jury didn't need the answer to its question to reach a verdict:

The foreman told a court representative that the jurors had reached a decision without needing the instructions.

That's why I don't think this jury's ruling will stand, among other reasons.

I thought it wise to highlight this, because I saw this morning that some missed seeing it. For example, James Niccolai at PCWorld quotes a "legal expert" who clearly didn't:

"It's surprising they came back so quickly, given that it was a complicated case and very complicated verdict form, but that said, it looks like they were thoughtful about it and they did their job," said Roy Futterman, director at DOAR Litigation Consulting and a clinical psychologist who works on trial strategies and the mindset of jurors.

"One sign of that is that the verdicts were consistent, they held together — they voted one way on infringement and another way on invalidity; it all tells the same big story," he said.

That's in an article titled "Quick Verdict in Apple Trial Doesn't Mean Jury Shirked Its Duty, Expert Says." If the jury instructions [PDF] are as long and complex as they were in this case, a quick verdict can indeed mean it shirked its duty. For example, if the jury rushed so much it assigned $2 million dollars to Apple, and then had to subtract it because there was no infringement, it raises a valid question: what was the basis for any of the damages figures the jury came up with? If they had any actual basis, how could they goof like this? Was there a factual basis for any of the damages figures?

Time will tell, but keep in mind that one of the plays you'll see next will likely be a Rule 50(b) motion by Samsung, and that's the one where you ask the judge for various relief on the basis that no reasonable jury could find what it did find on the evidence presented. Here's Google's still pending Rule 50(b) motion for judgment as a matter of law in the Oracle v. Google case, to give you an idea of what they look like. As you can see, you can ask for victory across the board or just on one part of what the jury decided.

This story is far from over, in other words, and while Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, waxed philosophical about the trial, and saying that it was about values, not money, one important US value is that the jury fulfill its responsibilities, one of which is to read and make sure they understand and follow the jury instructions they are given. I believe Cook would agree that trials are supposed to be fair, with everyone doing their part. If this jury thought they knew the right result without instructions, and if they hurried so much they made glaring mistakes, and they did, and all in Apple's favor, something isn't right in this picture. As the legal blog, Above the Law expressed it:

Here's the thing, ladies and gentlemen of the Apple v. Samsung jury: It would take me more than three days to understand all the terms in the verdict! Much less come to a legally binding decision on all of these separate issues. Did you guys just flip a coin?

If it would take a lawyer three days to make sure he understood the terms in the form, how did the jury not need the time to do the same? There were 700 questions, remember, and one thing is plain, that the jury didn't take the time to avoid inconsistencies, one of which resulted in the jury casually throwing numbers around, like $2 million dollars for a nonfringement.

Come on. This is farce.

Professor Michael Risch points out an even worse inconsistency:

How did the Galaxy Tab escape design patent infringement? This was the only device to be preliminarily enjoined (on appeal no less), and yet it was the one of the few devices to be spared the sledgehammer. And, by the way, it looks an awful lot like an iPad. Yet the Epic 4G, a phone I own (uh oh, Apple's coming after me)—which has a slide out keyboard, a curved top and bottom, 4 buttons on the bottom, the word Samsung printed across the top, buttons in different places (and I know this because I look in all the wrong places on my wife's iTouch), a differently shaped speaker, a differently placed camera, etc.—that device infringes the iPhone design patents....

Relatedly, the ability to get a design patent on a user interface implies that design patent law is broken. This, to me, is the Supreme Court issue in this case. We can dicker about the facts of point 2, but whether you can stop all people from having square icons in rows of 4 with a dock is something that I thought we settled in Lotus v. Borland 15 years ago. I commend Apple for finding a way around basic UI law, but this type of ruling cannot stand.

This is the second lawyer I've seen predicting this case will go all the way to the US Supreme Court. He also compliments Groklaw for having "not only really detailed information, but really accurate information, and actual source documents. That combination is hard to find." Thank you.

One of the jurors has now spoken, and CNET's Greg Sandoval has it, in his article, Exclusive: Apple-Samsung juror speaks out:

Apple v. Samsung juror Manuel Ilagan said the nine-person jury that heard the patent infringement case between the companies knew after the first day that it believed Samsung had wronged Apple....

The decision was very one-sided, but Ilagan said it wasn't clear the jurors were largely in agreement until after the first day of deliberations.

"It didn't dawn on us [that we agreed that Samsung had infringed] on the first day," Ilagan said. "We were debating heavily, especially about the patents on bounce back and pinch-to-zoom. Apple said they owned patents, but we were debating about the prior art [about the same technology that Samsung said existed before the iPhone debuted]. [Velvin Hogan] was jury foreman. He had experience. He owned patents himself. In the beginning the debate was heated, but it was still civil. Hogan holds patents, so he took us through his experience. After that it was easier. After we debated that first patent — what was prior art —because we had a hard time believing there was no prior art, that there wasn't something out there before Apple.

"In fact we skipped that one," Ilagan continued, "so we could go on faster. It was bogging us down." ...

"Once you determine that Samsung violated the patents," Ilagan said, "it's easy to just go down those different [Samsung] products because it was all the same. Like the trade dress, once you determine Samsung violated the trade dress, the flatscreen with the Bezel...then you go down the products to see if it had a bezel. But we took our time. We didn't rush. We had a debate before we made a decision. Sometimes it was getting heated."

This gets worse and worse.

Dan Levine of Reuters has some words from the foreman:

"We wanted to make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the wrist," Hogan said. "We wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable."

Hogan said jurors were able to complete their deliberations in less than three days — much faster than legal experts had predicted — because a few had engineering and legal experience, which helped with the complex issues in play. Once they determined Apple's patents were valid, jurors evaluated every single device separately, he said.

Now the jurors are contradicting each other. Lordy, the more they talk, the worse it gets. I'm sure Samsung is glad they are talking, though. Had they read the full jury instructions, all 109 pages [as PDF], they would have read that damages are not supposed to punish, merely to compensate for losses. Here's what they would have found in Final Jury Instruction No. 35, in part:

The amount of those damages must be adequate to compensate the patent holder for the infringement. A damages award should put the patent holder in approximately the financial position it would have been in had the infringement not occurred, but in no event may the damages award be less than a reasonable royalty. You should keep in mind that the damages you award are meant to compensate the patent holder and not to punish an infringer.

The same instruction is repeated in Final Jury Instruction No. 53, in case they missed it the first time. Did they obey those instructions? Nay, did they even read them? The evidence, judging by the foreman's reported words, point the wrong way.

Samsung lawyer John Quinn is quoted by USA Today saying they'll be asking the judge to toss this out and then appeal, if she does not:

Samsung, the global leader among smartphone makers, vowed to fight. Its lawyers told the judge it intended to ask her to toss out the verdict.

"This decision should not be allowed to stand because it would discourage innovation and limit the rights of consumers to make choices for themselves," Samsung lead lawyer John Quinn said. He argued that the judge or an appeals court should overturn the verdict.

Apple lawyers plan to formally demand Samsung pull its most popular cellphones and computer tablets from the U.S. market. They also can ask the judge to triple the damages from $1.05 billion to $3 billion.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh will decide those issues, along with Samsung's demand she overturn the jury's verdict, in several weeks. Quinn said Samsung would appeal if the judge refuses to toss out the decision....

Samsung said after the verdict that it was "unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners."

"This is by no means the final word in this case," Quinn said in a statement. "Patent law should not be twisted so as to give one company a monopoly over the shape of smartphones."

One more quote from the foreman, thanks to Bloomberg News:

When I got in this case and I started looking at these patents I considered: "If this was my patent and I was accused, could I defend it?" Hogan explained. On the night of Aug. 22, after closing arguments, "a light bulb went on in my head," he said. "I thought, I need to do this for all of them.

And in case you think Groklaw is the only one to notice, it's actually a known problem that juries tend to over compensate plaintiffs, as brought out in this AP article by Paul Elias:

Increasingly these highly complex disputes are being decided by juries, rather than judges, and the juries tend to issue more generous awards for patent violations.

That has companies on the receiving end of successful patent infringement lawsuits crying foul and calling for reform in the patent system, but it also has some legal experts questioning whether ordinary citizens should be rendering verdicts and fixing damages in such high stakes, highly technical cases.

"That's a great question ... and it's the subject of a fair amount of current debate," said Notre Dame University law professor Mark McKenna....

"This case is unmanageable for a jury," Robin Feldman, an intellectual property professor at the University of California Hastings Law School, said before the verdict. "There are more than 100 pages of jury instructions. I don't give that much reading to my law students. They can't possible digest it."

"The trial is evidence of a patent system that is out of control," Feldman said. "No matter what happens in this trial, I think people will need to step back and ask whether we've gone too far in the intellectual property system."

___________
¹ Is that math even correct, even after the fix? One reader did the math, and he or she thinks their math is off, and the right total, even if all else is accurate, should be $1,049,423,540. Here's the calculation, taken from the Amended Verdict Form [PDF], so you can do your own checking:

Thank you Gizmodo!

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Skepticism opening up to the concept of "$100-$500/day working from home"

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You are supposed to be making $100-$500/day working from home, just with a couple hours of work everyday which would be perfect for any busy person...

You are welcome to test this as the same time than me so we can compare and make averages...
here's the link http://one.zipnadazilch.com/index.php?referral=662768

You can email me directly at airam [at] chicas-productions.com

How it works? Why it is not a scam?
Znz never receives your credit card numbers at all.
Zipnadazilch is actually affiliate marketing,

Zipnadazilch is actually affiliate marketing. What an “affiliate” does is goes out and markets for other companies to receive a commission. (basically we sell other peoples stuff) This is also referred to as Cost Per Action. (or CPA) These companies (like FreeCreditReport.com) are willing to pay a “Cost” to receive a specific “Action.” Let me use a few scenario’s to help better explain this process.

Let’s continue using FreeCreditReport.com for the sake of this example. As we all know companies like this spend billions in marketing every year (we’ve all seen the annoying commercials) in an attempt to get more customers. They always boast about a “free trial” on television because they are always offering this promotion.

However, as much as they spend on marketing they are never guaranteed that these advertising dollars will pay off, often times they take a loss. This is why CPA became so popular many years ago. Companies like this decided that another way to invest their money would be to pay a specific “cost” to anyone who would deliver a specific “action.” Clearly this removes any gamble from their marketing budget as FreeCreditReport knows exactly what they’re getting for this money. They are literally being handed a potential customer and we are handed the opportunity to work from home, let’s look at this in motion….

FreeCreditReport.com makes public to all affiliate marketers that they will pay thirty five dollars to any one “affiliate” that delivers a prospective lead. So we have established the companies “cost” which is thirty five dollars; now they tell the affiliate that in order to receive this money the new prospect has to provide a phone number, name, address, and credit card. (now we have established the “action” required) So affiliates like myself, you, or Znz can sign-up on their site as an “affiliate” and start marketing using specific links and banners they provide for us. Then when someone stumbles onto one of our links somewhere in cyberspace and takes advantage of this “free trial,” FreeCreditReport.com will pay us thirty five dollars. This is affiliate marketing and CPA at its best.

Now Znz took this one step further and decided they would promote these companies by making it a work from home opportunity. The idea is truly ingenious.

Zip nada zilch one went out and signed up with many different companies (as an affiliate) who were all willing to pay the same “cost” to receive the same “action.” (name, phone, address, and credit card) Then they created the website with the videos, tools, and training necessary for other “affiliates” to market this work from home opportunity for twenty dollars a lead. Their only requirement was that we first become one of these “leads” and then we are free to market as much as we want using all of their tools.

Now with all this knowledge on affiliate marketing and cost per action you maybe wondering why you would go through Znz one and not just sign-up directly with FreeCreditReport.com to receive the full amount. Valid question; as an affiliate marketer I do promote for several companies besides Znz. However, the big advantage with Znz is that they provide the video presentation for me and they do pay me daily. I love that part simply because every other company will only cut a check once a month, and then they require a minimum of one to two hundred dollars before they will cut a check at all.

Znz is willing to wait for their money and they are the ones who set up with many different companies bettering my chances of converting one into a lead. In other words instead of me just trying to sell someone on a trial of FreeCreditReport.com to get paid, they can choose one of many other companies and I still get paid that day rather than a month down the road. It truly is easy money everyday!

Now I appreciate you bearing with me on the length of this, and since I don’t want to make this post any longer than it already is; I have created a separate post (How Links Are Tracked) explaining how these links are merely a “re-direct” and that when you enter your information it is on that companies web-site and not Znz’s. I hope this clears up the notion that Znz one is not a scam but rather a very good opportunity for any inexperienced (or experienced) affiliate to start making money now while learning the business.

More info:
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Hope you'll found the information you expected,
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Apple awarded $1 billion in Samsung patent case

Federal jury rules Samsung violated Apple's copyright on tablets, smartphones

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- After a year of scorched-earth litigation, a jury decided Friday that Samsung ripped off the innovative technology used by Apple to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad.

The jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion. An appeal is expected.

Apple Inc. filed its patent infringement lawsuit in April 2011 and engaged legions of the country's highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion from its top smartphone competitor. Samsung Electronics Co. fired back with its own lawsuit seeking $399 million.

During closing arguments, Apple attorney Harold McElhinny claimed Samsung was having a "crisis of design" after the 2007 launch of the iPhone, and executives with the South Korean company were determined to illegally cash in on the success of the revolutionary device.

Samsung's lawyers countered that it was simply and legally giving consumers what they want: Smart phones with big screens. They said Samsung didn't violate any of Apple's patents and further alleged innovations claimed by Apple were actually created by other companies.

Samsung has emerged as one of Apple's biggest rivals and has overtaken Apple as the leading smartphone maker.

Samsung's Galaxy line of phones run on Android, a mobile operating system that Google Inc. has given out for free to Samsung and other phone makers.

Samsung conceded that Apple makes great products but said it doesn't have a monopoly on the design of rectangle phones with rounded corners that it claimed it created.

The trial came after each side filed a blizzard of legal motions and refused advisories by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to settle the dispute out of court.

Deliberations by the jury of seven men and two women began Wednesday.

Samsung has sold 22.7 million smartphones and tablets that Apple claimed uses its technology. McElhinny said those devices accounted for $8.16 billion in sales since June 2010.

Apple and Samsung combined account for more than half of global smartphone sales.

As part of its lawsuit, Apple also demanded that Samsung pull its most popular cellphones and computer tablets from the U.S. market.

From the beginning, legal experts and Wall Street analysts viewed Samsung as the underdog in the case. Apple's headquarters is a mere 10 miles from the courthouse, and jurors were picked from the heart of Silicon Valley where Apple's late founder Steve Jobs is a revered technological pioneer.

While the legal and technological issues were complex, patent expert Alexander I. Poltorak previously said the case would likely boil down to whether jurors believe Samsung's products look and feel almost identical to Apple's iPhone and iPad.

To overcome that challenge at trial, Samsung's lawyers argued that many of Apple's claims of innovation were either obvious concepts or ideas stolen from Sony Corp. and others. Experts called that line of argument a high-risk strategy because of Apple's reputation as an innovator.

Apple's lawyers argued there is almost no difference between Samsung products and those of Apple, and presented internal Samsung documents they said showed it copied Apple designs. Samsung lawyers insisted that several other companies and inventors had previously developed much of the Apple technology at issue.

The U.S. trial is just the latest skirmish between the two tech giants over product designs. Previous legal battles were fought in Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.

The U.S. case is one of some 50 lawsuits among myriad telecommunications companies jockeying for position in the burgeoning $219 billion market for smartphones and computer tablets.

A jury has ruled for Apple in its huge smartphone patent infringement case involving Samsung and ordered Samsung to pay $1.5 billion.

The verdict was reached Friday.

In its lawsuit filed last year, Apple Inc. had demanded $2.5 billion while accusing Samsung of ripping off the design technology of iPhones and iPads.

During closing arguments at the trial, Samsung attorney Charles Verhoeven called that demand ridiculous and asked the jury to award Samsung $399 million after claiming Apple used Samsung Electronics Co. technology without proper compensation.

The two companies lead the $219 billion market for smartphones and computer tablets. They are enmeshed in similar lawsuits in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.

Thank you Variety!
More info: www.variety.com
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Apple Products Shown in 30% of Hollywood's Top Movies, for Free...

In the so-called "tech trial of the century," Apple is showing off just how much it has captured the hearts and minds of Hollywood.

Samsung Scores European Success In Tablet Wars With Apple

Apple is in the midst of a jury trial that accuses rival Samsung of infringing its patents and trademarks on its iPhone and iPad products in creating and marketing the Galaxy devices. The trial continues this week after a San Francisco jury heard testimony from top Apple executives about the making and marketing of the consumer technology that took the world by storm. Apple now demands some $2.5 billion in damages from Samsung. Jury selection began July 30.

Apple has long insisted that it doesn't pay for product placement in movies and television, but that doesn't mean the Cupertino, Calif.-based company doesn't care. In fact, highlights from the trial evidence that Hollywood has been a huge part of the company's marketing strategy over the years.
When Apple first worked on the iPhone, it was called "Project Purple."

According to testimony by Apple mobile software head Scott Forstall, secrecy about the project was so immense that a sign on the front door where the work was being done said "Fight Club." The allusion was obvious. "The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club," testified Forstall.

Apple executives say that building the iPhone was risky, but there were great rewards promised for a successful project.

More than five years ago, when the company was working on the prototypes, Apple saw what cell phones weren't doing well at the time. "We started to look at whether you could put entertainment content on cellphones," testified Phil Schiller, Apple's global chief of marketing. "We realized at the time that some phones weren't any good as entertainment devices."

The iPhone was introduced in June 2007. Before it launched, Apple used a commercial during the Academy Awards to announce its impending arrival. But then the company decided it could "go quiet" on the advertising front, according to more testimony.

How?
For one thing, Apple realized the press would lavish attention on it. But the company also decided that Hollywood would embrace it.
"We would love to see our products used by stars in movies [and] TV shows, and we have a person who helps provide products to people that want to do that," said Schiller.

The jury saw a chart that documented all of the product-placement successes.

In fact, Apple has been getting hundreds of millions of dollars of possibly free publicity over the years.

According to a survey by Brandchannel this year, Apple-branded products have appeared in more than a third of all films topping the box office from 2001 through 2011 (and 17 of the 40 top films last year). That's more than McDonald's, Pepsi and the Sony Vaio combined for the past decade.

In Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, for example, Apple got more than five minutes onscreen, which analysis from Front Row Analytics estimates to be worth more than $23 million. Perhaps most amazing, according to Brandchannel, is that Apple says it doesn't pay for product placement.

At trial, Schiller testified that in 2007, the company concluded that it "didn't need" to put any money into its advertising budget. That's changed somewhat. According to what the jury heard, from 2008 to 2011, Apple spent $647 million on iPhone publicity and $457 million on iPad publicity. For a company that has sold some 250 million iPhones, though, that's a rather paltry sum.

Nevertheless, Schiller says that Samsung's introduction of similar smartphones and tablets "creates a huge problem" for his marketing division.

Samsung's lawyer asked whether it's really possible that consumers "accidentally buy the Droid Charge thinking it's an iPhone."

"I believe they may be confused," responded Schiller.
Samsung will have an opportunity to bring its own witnesses and evidence soon. Confusion is one part of the fussing in court. The parties also are debating who gets credit for going first with the important design work on mobile devices. Samsung tried in vain to show off its F700 phone to the jury and got in trouble with the judge for possibly leaking excluded evidence to the media. Samsung also could attempt to show "prior art" by pointing to more Hollywood content. After all, Samsung once brought forward the argument that an iPad-like device could be seen in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Apple doesn't get credit for that one.

Thank you Hollywood Reporter

More info: www.hollywoodreporter.com

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U.K.'s Production Film Market Pacts With India...

The British producers' meet and greet will link with Primexchange in Goa aiming to ignite Euro-Indian collaborations.

LONDON – The Film London Production Finance Market (PFM), backed by the British Film Institute, the mayor of London, Europe's MEDIA program, U.K. Trade & Investment

Producer Marianne Gray to Deliver Keynote at The Film London Production Finance Market
Europa's Le Pogam gives PFM keynote

The fresh links with Primexchange will see one U.K. or European producer from the 2012 PFM, selected by Film London, given a ticket to India's Film Bazaar, the seven day professional training program which takes place in Goa.

Primexchange is a co-production workshop, founded and organised by Berlin based Primehouse.
It provides a forum for independent European and Indian producers meet and greet and talk movie funding.

Through Film Bazaar it offers an integrated approach to further develop film projects.
Film London in collaboration with Primehouse will select producers "with project(s) that are relevant for an Indian market, in terms of where the film will be shot or its commercial viability."

Film London chief executive Adrian Wootton said the pact would build on his organization's long running relationship with the Indian film industry.

"The Film Bazaar is a great opportunity which we are a delighted to be offering a successful PFM producer," Wootton said.

The PFM returns for a sixth year running Oct. 17 and 18 in association with the BFI 56th London Film Festival.

The Market already has existing partnerships with Toronto International Film Festival's International Financing Forum, Melbourne International Film Festival's 37ºSouth Market, Rome International Film Festival's New Cinema Network, Ile de France Film Commission and the Nordic Co-Production Market at the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund.

Thank you Hollywood reporter

New coin boosts African filmmakers

New coin boosts African filmmakers
Sub-Saharan region still lags in growth of film industry
By CHRISTOPHER VOURLIAS

"Soul Boy," from Tom Tykwer's Nairobi-based One Fine Day Films, was a hit at international film festivals, including Berlin.

S. Africa pic biz looks for solid ground

Despite producing such auteurs as Ousmane Sembene, Souleymane Cisse and Djibril Diop Mambety, the slow growth of film in sub-Saharan Africa is largely a story of unrealized potential.

While film industries have blossomed in developing nations from Southeast Asia to Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa lags far behind the rest of the world. Apart from an emerging biz in South Africa, African countries are struggling to develop sustainable industries, with just a handful finding modest success with the low-cost, straight-to-DVD model pioneered by Nigeria.

Yet African filmmakers today have more access to funding than ever before, and a host of initiatives are spurring a quiet revolution that, in the next few years, will herald the arrival of a generation of new voices telling a continent's untold stories.

Global film funds like the Berlinale's World Cinema Fund, Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund, the French-funded World Cinema Support and the Global Film Initiative continue to provide vital financial support to filmmakers in Africa and across the developing world. A growing number of satellite festivals -- and Africa programs at established fests -- are pushing emerging talent into the global eye.

Combined with a host of smaller initiatives targeting the support of local businesses, these developments are giving filmmakers the skills and knowledge to connect to established industries, says Matthijs Wouter Knol, of the Berlinale's Talent Campus, which for the past five years has run a pan-African campus in collaboration with the Durban Film Festival. On a continent where formal film schools are lacking, such programs are often the first chance aspiring filmmakers get to learn about the mechanisms of international financing and distribution.

The benefits are also more tangible. Participants in Focus Features' buzz-generating Africa First program get U.S. distribution, which helps bring exposure to a film that might otherwise not have gotten it, says Completion Films prexy Kisha Cameron-Dingle, who runs the program.

At this year's Durban fest, French TV network Canal France Intl. introduced an initiative called Haraka! that will award €10,000 ($12,293) to 12 African filmmakers to produce short films, which Canal will distribute across its platforms in Africa and Europe.

The broader impact on local film industries in Africa is hard to quantify. Rotterdam's Janneke Langelaan says that part of the Hubert Bals Fund's success lies in the possibilities it creates for aspiring filmmakers. "(It sets) into motion an awareness that this is the sort of film that they can do," he says.

Berlin's Knol notes that most of the program's graduates not only work with and develop local talent when they return to their countries, but transfer vital knowledge and creative energy to their peers.

"They're sort of the epicenter of a lot of things happening around them," Knol says.

Deeper engagement has been happening on a smaller scale. In the past few years, East Africa has become a hub of up-and-coming talent, thanks to collaborations between local industries and foreign filmmakers.

Indian helmer Mira Nair's Maisha Film Lab in Kampala has brought a wave of emerging talents to the Ugandan capital. Tom Tykwer's Nairobi-based One Fine Day Films draws participants from more than a dozen countries for its annual workshops, which result in collaboration on a feature film. The group's first pic, "Soul Boy," has screened at several big festivals around the world, including Berlin, Edinburgh and Palm Springs, since its release last year; their sophomore effort, "Nairobi Half Life," by Kenyan helmer Tosh Gitonga, was one of the most talked-about films at this year's Durban Film Fest.

In Rwanda, American helmer Lee Isaac Chung's shingle, Almond Tree Rwanda, has helped put that small country on the map, with a number of promising shorts screening in fests like Tribeca and Rotterdam. Encouraged by Chung's support, the Almond Tree team has gone on to offer its own training and mentoring programs, enabling an energetic production base to grow around them.

Where small, homegrown industries exist, these programs can act as a catalyst. In the words of Cameron-Dingle, "We can't stimulate something that doesn't already exist in some form."

Perhaps most importantly, a generation of young filmmakers is emerging across Africa with a global vision that reflects the realities of life on the continent today. Rapid urbanization, the continent-wide penetration of Web-enabled mobile phones, and the ubiquity of satellite TV in middle-class African homes means that a young filmmaker in Nairobi might feel a stronger creative kinship to his peers in Mexico City, Sao Paolo or Jakarta than to a cousin in rural Kenya -- or to the so-called "calabash cinema" of past African greats.

Knol says that the young helmers he meets at the Talent Campus are asking the same questions as their American and European counterparts about crowdfunding, VOD platforms and cheaper, more nimble technologies.

Thank you Variety

More info: www.variety.com
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Thank you for reading us,
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Monday, August 27, 2012

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Apple awarded $1 billion in Samsung patent case

Federal jury rules Samsung violated Apple's copyright on tablets, smartphones