Movies

At Pixar Animation Studios, which will release "Toy Story 3," its 11th feature film, on Friday, each new movie is an opportunity both to notch huge box office numbers and to break new ground in the technique of using computers in digital animation.

To veteran Pixar watchers, the latter dynamic should by now be very familiar. With "Finding Nemo," the studio had to figure out how to use its technology to craft believable underwater scenes. With "Monsters Inc.," the challenge was animating the characters' lush fur. In "Cars," it was determining how … Read more

Producers of "The Hurt Locker" have asked a federal court to order Internet service providers to reveal the names of customers who they accuse of illegally sharing copies of the film via the Web.

Voltage Pictures, the company that produced the Oscar-winning movie, filed a 23-page document on Monday with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Included in the filing were the Internet protocol addresses belonging to some of the people accused of pirating the movie. The production company said that it will file more IP addresses with the court in the future. (A … Read more

Suing people for illegal file sharing appears to have made a comeback.

News that Voltage Pictures, producers of the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," filed a federal copyright complaint last week against 5,000 alleged file sharers caught many in the file-sharing community off guard. Hadn't the film and music industries dumped a litigation strategy in favor of a much more subtle approach, one that didn't drag fans into court where they stood to lose thousands of dollars?

It's true, the trade groups for the major players in both these sectors, the Motion Picture Association … Read more

The federal government's inquiry into Apple's business practices isn't restricted to digital music, according to a published report.

Investigators with the Department of Justice have begun asking questions of executives in the film industry and other media sectors, according to a story that appeared Friday in The New York Post.

"The [Justice Dept.] is doing outreach," an anonymous Hollywood source told the Post. "You can't dictate terms to the industry. The Adobe thing is just inviting the wrath of everybody."

CNET could not reach its film industry sources this weekend and could … Read more

Producers of Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker" have made good on a promise to file copyright lawsuits against people who illegally shared the movie via peer-to-peer networks.

Voltage Pictures, an independent production company, filed a copyright complaint on Monday against 5,000 John Does in federal court in Washington, D.C. According to court records, next on the company's to-do list is to learn the names of the John and Jane Does from their Internet service providers.

Attorneys for Voltage wrote in the complaint that unless the court stops the people who pirate "The Hurt Locker,&… Read more

Robert "Bob" Kerrey, a former U.S. Senator and governor from the state of Nebraska as well as a Vietnam war hero has agreed to steer the Motion Picture Association of America.

A high-level film industry source confirmed a report in the blog, The Wrap. According to The Wrap, which broke the news, all the parties have agreed in principle but have yet to sign a deal.

There's little technology focus in Kerrey's background but his resume is impressive nonetheless. He is a former unsuccessful candidate for U.S. President (1992) and during his Vietnam service … Read more

Nicolas Chartier, who produced the Academy Award-winning film "The Hurt Locker," doesn't appear to be backing down from criticism he has received for his plan to sue those who illegally downloaded his movie.

In response to an e-mail he received from someone complaining about his litigation plans, Chartier called the person a "moron" and "stupid," and said "I hope your family and your kids end up in jail one day for stealing, so maybe they can be taught the difference," according to a story in the blog Boing Boing.

So it'… Read more

The Pirate Bay, the highly controversial BitTorrent search engine, re-emerged Tuesday in typically defiant fashion after Hollywood film studios helped trigger a day-long blackout of the site.

The Web site, which is targeted for elimination by content owners nearly the world over, presumably has found a new bandwidth provider. The service, which has helped millions of people locate and eventually download scores of pirated films, had been temporarily subdued Monday after German authorities ordered its then-Internet host to cease providing Web access to the site.

On Tuesday morning, the Pirate Bay posted a photo of a cat and a note--in … Read more

The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent search engine that Hollywood has tried in vain to shut down for years, was offline Monday morning.

The blackout was presumably the result of an injunction won recently by the film studios that ordered The Pirate Bay's bandwidth provider to stop servicing the site. This is only the latest chapter in the cat-and-mouse game between Hollywood's big studios and the site's operators.

The Pirate Bay has lost at least two other bandwidth providers in the past few years and the site typically just acquires a new host. That is likely to happen … Read more