Hollywood

For nearly three years, "Star Wars" fans everywhere have been coming up with their own takes on the beloved film's many famous scenes--15 seconds at a time.

This is "Star Wars Uncut," a project to remake George Lucas' 1977 classic, entirely from fan-made scenes. And while the in-progress results have been available all along for all to see, the project's developers had never publicly released their finished product. Until now.

Today, as Laughing Squid wrote, Casey Pugh, who conceived of the "Star Wars Uncut" project, finally released his director's cut of … Read more

CUPERTINO, Calif.--As Adam Savage walked onto the stage alongside a battered old water heater, the crowd of several thousand people erupted in a loud ovation. They weren't cheering for the famous co-host of "MythBusters."

"Only at a MythBusters show will a busted water heater get a round of applause," Savage said, grinning.

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you know why the audience was revved up by the appearance of something as prosaic as a water heater. But for the uninitiated, during a 2007 episode of Discovery Channel's hit … Read more

Maybe it went something like this.

"It's 'Resident Evil: Retribution,'" said the Sony marketing department. "It's kind of cool. Well, coolish. So why don't we showcase some Sony products in there? Just to make them seem, you know, kind of cool?"

The trailer-makers' pinched faces failed to hide their inner aghastness. Somewhere, they believed this series to be high art. This was a glorious video game brought to celluloid life. Five times. Or, wait, was this, "Resident Evil: Retribution," the sixth?

They couldn't remember. Making movies and then making ads … Read more

If you're a storyteller, wouldn't you want the chance to have "Gladiator" and "Blade Runner" auteur Ridley Scott help you with a project? And wouldn't it be great to have half a million dollars to spend on it?

That could be your future if you're the winner of YouTube's Your Film Festival, a competition to unearth the world's best storyteller that Google's video sharing site announced today.

Beginning February 2, YouTube will open up the film festival to anyone in the world who's 18 or older and has … Read more

The FBI has busted the alleged operators of Internet locker service MegaUpload, which had become one of the most popular video destinations on the Web, according to a statement from the U.S. Justice Department and FBI.

Seven people have been named in an indictment and four suspects have been taken into custody, according to the statement today. They have been charged in Virginia with crimes related to online piracy, including racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, and conspiring to commit money laundering.

The suspects face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, the government said.

According to … Read more

If you're active on Twitter, it's almost impossible to imagine that you got through today without being bombarded by mentions of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two controversial antipiracy bills under consideration in Congress.

But with today being the day that Web sites like Wikipedia, BoingBoing, Reddit, and many others went dark--not to mention Google and others that featured less drastic forms of anti-legislation protest--it was striking to see just how much issue dominated the conversation on Twitter.

On Tuesday, for example, there were approximately 106,500 mentions of the term &… Read more

With sites like Reddit, BoingBoing, PostSecret, and I Can Has Cheezburger blacked out today in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, you might think this would be a peaceful, relaxed Wednesday for the people who run them. You'd be wrong.

All across the Internet, sites like those and many others stood up to register their opposition to SOPA and PIPA. But for some of those who have gotten the most attention for their activism, today has actually been crazier than usual, despite not having to constantly update their publications all day.

"Today … Read more

NEW YORK--Perhaps as many as two thousand people gathered in Midtown Manhattan today to protest antipiracy legislation being considered by Congress, legislation that they say will silence the Internet.

"What does democracy look like?" organizers shouted to the crowd.

"This is what democracy looks like," came the response.

Indeed, those that gathered were part of a new tech-focused twist on the democratic process. Internet companies across the country flexed their political muscles today, rallying Web users to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.

Not only was the crowd largely informed of … Read more

One of America's most respected newspapers has come out on the side of copyright owners by supporting a controversial antipiracy legislation, which the technology sector has sworn to defeat.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial section today published a piece called "Brake the Internet Pirates." The paper said that the creative industries are being threatened by abusers "who hijack [the Internet's] architecture." The Journal wrote that regardless of what critics say, that is all the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would do.

"SOPA merely adapts the current avenues of legal recourse for infringement … Read more