June 2009 Archives
From AFACT (Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft)
FOUR PIRACY SEIZURES IN FOUR MONTHS IN BANKSTOWN AREA
Sydney: A 36-year-old woman was arrested by New South Wales Police in Bankstown late yesterday and charged with copyright offences in relation to possessing for sale pirated movie DVDs.
Police discovered the woman selling the illegitimate movie DVDs from the rear of her parked car in Bankstown's Brandon Avenue Carpark. Officers seized around 2,500 pirated movie DVDs, including copies of Land of the Lost and Angels and Demons which have only just been released in cinemas across Australia. Other titles included copies of Valkeryie, which is not yet legitimately released on DVD.
Following the arrest, Neil Gane, Director of Operations for the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) said: "We commend the work of the New South Wales Police for putting a stop to the sale of these pirated movies in our communities. Legitimate suburban businesses like cinemas and DVD rental stores have enough challenges in these tough economic times without having to compete with criminals."
The operation yesterday represents the fourth seizure of pirated DVD movies in Bankstown in the past four months. Over 7,000 pirated DVD movies, with an estimated street value of $35,000, have been seized in these operations.
Police enquiries are continuing and further charges may be laid.
Penalties for copyright crimes are up to $60,500 and/or 5 years jail per offence.
"What are you really burning?" - AFACT's anti-piracy campaign.
Earlier this year english artist and television presenter Tony Hart passed away, best known for his plastacine creation 'Morph' he was recently honoured by a flash mob in front of the Tate Gallery. Hundreds of Morphlike figurines we placed in front of the gallery in his honour.
Via Cheery Flavour and 30gsm
MTV is about to launch it's new show 'It's on with Alexa Chung', the repacement show in the US for 'Total Request Live'. They plan to have the show include links through social netowkring sites, such as Facebook and Twitter so that the audiece can interact live on air, they also plan to highlight viral videos on online content. Yet this casues them a whole bunch of interlectual property and copyright challenges.
Read more here.
A few weeks ago news came that Western Australia is leading the way in the uptake of digital television, we've been the leaders in buying up big screen televisions that allow us into the world of ABC2 and ONE.
In the US as they approached the 'turn off' date for the analogue signal it was highlighted that in the move to digital some people would be left behind especially those people who could not afford a new television and those additional television we have around the house. As they prepared to turn off the analogue signals on Friday there were still almost three million households were unprepared for the change over.
The average Australian household has between two and three televisions, so what happens when the second one is no longer working. It's a concern for childrens television and late night programming especially. Could these markets lose their entire audience when the analogue signal is turned off.
Well no need to worry, looking and the US situation again, now that the annalogue signal is n longer transmitting, the stores apparently are filled with smaller digital ready sets, perfect for the study, the porch, the kids room and the bedroom.
So your last filmic masterpiece was rejected from a supposedly forward thinking film festival because it featured ‘gratuitous nipple close-ups’ that were ‘not essential to the storyline’… In fact, most of your work tends to be dismissed as bizarre, lowbrow, or just plain distasteful. Does this sound like you?
CrushedPlanet.com aims to help filmmakers stick it to the man by providing an alternative method of viewing, screening and distributing movies. Started in May by the Emmy-winning Gantz brothers, Joe and Harry – responsible for the notorious reality series Taxi Cab Confessions in the States – CrushedPlanet is all about giving independent filmmakers an unrestricted, uncensored voice on the global scene.
Some top hits on the CrushedPlanet network right now: video diaries of Mary Van Note, a young woman with the hairstyle of a librarian, who admits to pleasuring herself with her plastic Pee-wee Herman doll (War on Comedy channel); Lorcan Finnegan animations – he uses film, stop-motion, and hand-drawn techniques in his work (Turn Back Now channel); and Son of a Bitch!, a documentary from Jon Ezrine about his disturbing relationship with his mother (Tell-a-Vision channel).
Despite channel names like ‘BodyFluid’ and ‘Pig Funk’, CrushedPlanet is not simply for crude home movies; much of the work is innovative, engaging stuff. Pay-per-view prices are USD 99c for a short and $3.99 for a feature-length film. But signup costs nothing and you get two free film views. (Only catch is you have to be over 18.) Take a chance on CrushedPlanet next time you make a slightly off-centre film project.
The easy way to find out what it's all about is to watch their video presentation.
