The launch of Australian Screen was met with an unfortunate fate: by 10.00am the site had crashed. The new site, which serves excerpts of Australian film and television archives crashed once users — primarily teachers and students — began accessing the new service
Sci Fi announced that Farscape would be resurrected online in ten short webisodes to be produced by the Jim Henson Company. There are hints that Ben Browder and Claudia Black will both be both available
A new film reviving the cult 1990s TV series The X-Files is moving closer to being made, according to reports. David Duchovny, one of the show’s stars, has told reporters he will receive a script next week. Duchovny and co-star Gillian Anderson are both on board
to reprise their roles as alien-hunting special agents Mulder and Scully, he said. The script has been written by creator Chris Carter and writer Frank Spotnitz
Although AllofMP3.com was shut down by the Russian Government this week, customers from the site who have existing credit can still purchase songs through its downloadable windows desktop and smartphone client, allTunes.com
Media Defender, a company which does the dirty work for the MPAA, has been caught setting up dummy
web sites in an attempt to catch those who download copyrighted videos. The site, MiiVi.com, complete with a user registration, forum, and family filter
, offered complete downloads of movies and fast and easy video downloading all in one great site
. But that’s not all; MiiVi also offered client software to speed up the downloading process. The only catch is, after it was installed, it searched your computer for other copyrighted files and reported back
It appears for the moment that Universal will not renew its long term contract with Apple for content on the iTunes store. While the details are not known about the exact nature of the dispute, many speculate that it has to do with Apple’s stance on fixed pricing and Apple’s refusal to license their DRM. The worse case scenario may include Universal pulling its entire catalog from iTunes. Both sides stand to lose out with 1/3 of of new releases coming from Universal and an estimated 15% of Universal’s sales coming from digital downloads. Apple’s market share is about 75% of digital downloads, and digital downloads are growing while CD sales are shrinking
Warner Music Group, Sony BMG and the billionaire Len Blavatnik on Thursday announced the creation of a digital music venture in Russia to sell products in one of the world’s biggest markets for pirated content
The eagerly awaited new album by Prince is being launched as a free CD with a national Sunday newspaper in a move that has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers. One music store executive described the plan as madness
while others said it was a huge insult to an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores. Prince’s label has cut its ties with the album in the UK to try to appease music stores
The trailer for the upcoming movie Babylon 5: The Lost Tales — Voices in the Dark has been posted at the official Babylon 5 site. For more on the creation of the film, the CG Society has an ongoing series of articles about the production’s effects development — via Slashdot
EMI’s recently-appointed senior vice president of digital Lauren Berkowitz has confirmed significant success with the company’s move to sell DRM-free tracks through iTunes
Activists from Binary Freedom Boston have launched a campaign calling on the BBC to release their content online without DRM or proprietary formats. The BBC asked about this earlier and even though the public chose not to use DRM by a landslide, they still decided to use it. EMI and Amazon have already ditched DRM. How long before the BBC does? — via Slashdot
A couple of former Yahoo execs are trying to create the next MySpace by aggregating fanfiction on a website called FanLib. But the fanfic writers recognised that exploitation was written all over the idea and they’ve refused to participate. Instead of creating the Myspace of fanfic since the launch two weeks ago, FanLib.com sparked a white-hot Internet firestorm. The meltdown is a hard lesson in how not to conduct business on the Internet. But it’s a firestorm of FanLib’s own making because, in spite of the Yahoo pedigree (or maybe because of it), they ploughed in like china shop bulls — via Slashdot
With great power comes great responsibility, and apparently with DRM-free music comes files embedded with identifying information. Such is the situation with Apple’s new DRM-free music: songs sold without DRM still have a user’s full name and account e-mail embedded in them, which means that dropping that new DRM-free song on your favorite P2P network could come back to bite you
After years of negotiations, the Tasmanian Government has persuaded US entertainment company Warner Brothers to help raise funds for research into tasmanian devil facial tumour disease. The Government has long argued that Warner Brothers should help fund the research, because it has made millions of dollars from the cartoon character Taz Devil
A Darth Vader mask has been tendered as evidence as the Darwin Magistrates Court hears charges against Lord Mayor Peter Adamson. The charges relate to the purchase of a $900 fridge and $1,800-worth of gift vouchers which he bought in June last year, then claimed reimbursement from the mayoral donations fund. The prosecution alleges the vouchers were used to buy a number of items including make-up, clothes and a Darth Vader voice changer
Nine people involved in a community portal Napisy.org were held for questioning by the Polish police force. They will be probably be accused of publishing illegal translations of foreign movies, which is forbidden by Polish copyright law
Veronica Mars is no more. The smart CW dramedy starring blond pixie Kristen Bell as a tough teenage sleuth with wisecracks and style to spare has been cancelled after three seasons
Digital rights management took another blow on Wednesday, as Amazon.com announced that it would launch a DRM-free music store later in 2007, with the EMI catalog as the first major-label offering
Cult Hammer horror films will return to the big screen after the company behind the movies was sold to a group headed by Big Brother creator John de Mol. At least $50m (£25m) will be spent on new horror films after British company Hammer Film Productions was sold to Dutch consortium Cyrte Investments. The new owners have also acquired the Hammer group’s back catalogue — via Pharyngula
If the bids are real — and the eBayMotors.com auction was stopped once for fake bidding — a modified 1969 Dodge Charger, painted to look like the General Lee from the TV Show The Dukes of Hazzard
, nearly became the most expensive car ever auctioned. The auction closed at $9,900,500 at 1:00 pm Friday. That puts it just $1.1 million away from the $11 million paid for a 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Sports Coupe sold by the auction house Christie’s in 1987. To date, that is the highest price ever paid for a car at auction, according to Christie’s
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