Movies

commentary To wannabe cord cutters out there: the cable industry says you don't exist, but count some Wall Street analysts as believers.

Reuters reported yesterday that top media and cable company stocks dipped after Credit Suisse downgraded shares of Disney, Viacom, News Corp., and Time Warner.

Credit Suisse anticipates that more young Americans will elect to drop their cable TV provider and replace it with one of the services that delivers video over the Web, such as Netflix, Apple TV, and the upcoming Google TV. That will prompt the cable companies to reduce their fees to TV networks and … Read more

If you asked the average moviegoer to name George Lucas' biggest influence on the film industry, they'd probably say "Star Wars." But while there's no arguing with the massive cultural and artistic impact of that film and its five sequels, a better answer might well be Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic.

To be sure, "Star Wars" and ILM are not unrelated--Lucas started ILM to create the visual effects for his groundbreaking movie. But the visual effects house has gone on to do a great deal more, and today is probably responsible for the look … Read more

There's probably no better way to determine who's a hard-core Xbox player and who's not than this: do they play Halo?

On November 15, 2001, the then relatively low-profile video game development studio Bungie, which at the time was owned by Microsoft, released what would become one of the most significant game titles ever--Halo: Combat Evolved.

No one knew it at the time, but this storyline, spelled out in the game's manual--for Microsoft's original Xbox, not the Xbox 360--ushered in what is now nine years and the six titles of what is easily one of … Read more

In a coordinated crackdown on Internet movie piracy, police from five European countries arrested a total of 10 people following raids, according to an Associated Press report.

Five of the arrests were made in Belgium, which spearheaded the raids on Tuesday, according to the AP report. Police shut down 48 servers and charged the five suspects in Belgium with computer fraud, hacking, and being members of a criminal organization.

Interestingly, the police told the AP that the suspects, ranging in age from 25 to 30 years old, were not pirating films for their own financial gain, according to the AP. … Read more

New releases were supposed to be dead at Netflix.

Don't tell that to CEO Reed Hastings. He just signed a long-term agreement that will hand the Web's No. 1 video-rental service the ability to stream "first-run films" from independent studio, Nu Image/Millennium Films as soon as the movies are made available for pay TV services, the companies announced Wednesday.

Remember when Netflix was blasted for initiating a 28-day delay on the rentals of new releases from Warner Bros. and some of the other big studios? Oh, how the critics howled. They said Netflix had surrendered. … Read more

For people worried that they may be accused of illegally sharing "The Hurt Locker," a movie about defusing bombs, the hope was that efforts to chase them down would fizzle out.

No such luck. The film's producers are finally moving to acquire the names of people they accuse of using peer-to-peer services to share unauthorized copies of the movie that won this year's Oscar for "Best Picture." Qwest Communications on Monday notified a customer in Denver that the Internet service provider has received a subpoena from lawyers representing Voltage Pictures, the production company that … Read more

The next generation of Apple TV will feature the Netflix streaming-movie service, according to a report from the Bloomberg news service.

According to the Bloomberg report, Apple will debut the new feature along with the upgraded Apple TV during a media event the company has scheduled for Wednesday.

Apple TV users would need to pay Netflix's subscription rental fees to acquire the service, according to the report, which also said Apple will release a $99 version of Apple TV, $130 less than the current model.

This isn't much of a surprise. Netflix has worked closely to provide the … Read more

An Internet service provider based in South Dakota is refusing to turn over information belonging to 143 customers accused of illegally sharing the Oscar-winning film, "The Hurt Locker."

In federal court on Monday, Midcontinent Communications filed a motion to quash a subpoena received from Voltage Pictures, the film's producers, who allege some of the ISP's customers used peer-to-peer services to pilfer unauthorized copies of its movie. Voltage seeks to require Midcontinent to identify those customers as well as turn over their home addresses, phone numbers, and other data.

Midcontinent's lawyers told the court that the … Read more

George Lucas' film company has filed a $5 million trademark-infringement lawsuit against Jedi Mind, a company that markets itself as allowing people to control computers with their brain waves.

The hostilities between LucasFilm and Jedi Mind began more than a year ago. According to Reuters, LucasFilm sent a cease-and-desist letter to Jedi Mind in May 2009, asking the company to change its name and to stop referencing the "Jedi Mind trick" when describing its products such as Master Mind and Jedi Mouse. The "Jedi Mind trick" first appeared in the "Star Wars" films.

At … Read more