MPAA kills screeners, but then brings them back to life
10-22-03, 03:06 AM
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MPAA kills screeners, but then brings them back to life
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ovies_eo/12740
Oscar Screener Ban Plan Scrapped
Tue Oct 21,12:30 PM ET Add Entertainment - E! Online to My Yahoo!
By Lia Haberman
The good news: the MPAA and Hollywood's major studios are about to revoke the Oscar screener ban.
The bad news: Academy members will be the only ones to receive tapes, to the exclusion of the directors, writers and actors guilds, members of the press and your hipster friend Bob, who knew a guy that knew a guy who could get him copies.
According to Variety, an announcement is expected this week regarding the compromise that would allow studios big and small to send out their screeners.
The decision follows an intensive weekend huddle between Jack Valenti, prez of the Motion Picture Association of America, and the studio head honchos to arrive at an agreement.
Maintaining an exclusive mailing list, the MPAA hopes, will keep a lid on the video piracy which prompted the ban in the first place while still giving Oscar voters access to movies they might otherwise not get to see.
The studios reportedly agreed to send out VHS screeners (recipients previously had a choice between VHS and DVD) encrypted with a special security code traceable to individual Academy members. (Such a move will, presumably, keep the likes of Steven Spielberg (news) from cranking out a few extra copies and selling them on eBay.)
Industry scuttlebutt suggests Valenti was keen on placating the creative community, which has vociferously protested the ban. Studio chiefs at Paramount, Universal and Sony also adopted a conciliatory attitude while the heads of Warner Bros. and Fox, widely credited with engineering the unpopular decision, were harder to convince.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) is purportedly involved in the talks as well, hashing out possible penalties if a screener is pirated. The organization, which was not involved in hatching the ban plan, has remained largely silent on the controversy.
Not so Hollywood's creative community.
First to cry foul were the indie studios and specialty distribution groups who complained the ban had less to do with preventing piracy than keeping the smaller distributors from scoring major Hollywood awards.
Next, 140 of the Industry's most esteemed directors, including Martin Scorsese (news), David Lynch (news) and Francis Ford Coppola (news), sent an open letter to Valenti criticizing the move, which they said prevented their films from getting noticed.
Then came the actors, more than 300 of them, including Jodie Foster (news), Sean Penn (news), Holly Hunter (news) and Nick Nolte (news), who signed another missive, calling for an end to the ban.
The latest group to gripe about the screener ban was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (news - web sites), which threatened last week to nix its year-end awards ceremony unless the movie studios repealed the prohibition. It is not immediately clear if the MPAA's reported compromise will affect the L.A. critics' cancellation.
The New York Film Critics Circle (news - web sites) is currently polling its members to see if they want to follow L.A.'s lead. Ditto the National Society of Film Critics (news - web sites). However, any action by those groups is unlikely to take place until after the MPAA's announcement this week.
The upcoming verdict is being closely followed by all parties. A source told Variety that up to 10 antitrust lawsuits could be filed against the studios and the MPAA if the ban is not lifted.
"There have been a lot of conversations with attorneys to look into the feasibility of lawsuits," said producer Ted Hope, a leader in the ban-the-ban campaign. "I've certainly consulted more than one attorney to find out what my recourse would be, and that's been in conjunction with other producers."
But the reported solution is generally seen to be acceptable to Hope and others.
"I find it incredibly heartening that people got behind this in such a rapid fashion and that the voices were heard," Hope told Variety. "The main thing now is that time is of the essence."
Tue Oct 21,12:30 PM ET Add Entertainment - E! Online to My Yahoo!
By Lia Haberman
The good news: the MPAA and Hollywood's major studios are about to revoke the Oscar screener ban.
The bad news: Academy members will be the only ones to receive tapes, to the exclusion of the directors, writers and actors guilds, members of the press and your hipster friend Bob, who knew a guy that knew a guy who could get him copies.
According to Variety, an announcement is expected this week regarding the compromise that would allow studios big and small to send out their screeners.
The decision follows an intensive weekend huddle between Jack Valenti, prez of the Motion Picture Association of America, and the studio head honchos to arrive at an agreement.
Maintaining an exclusive mailing list, the MPAA hopes, will keep a lid on the video piracy which prompted the ban in the first place while still giving Oscar voters access to movies they might otherwise not get to see.
The studios reportedly agreed to send out VHS screeners (recipients previously had a choice between VHS and DVD) encrypted with a special security code traceable to individual Academy members. (Such a move will, presumably, keep the likes of Steven Spielberg (news) from cranking out a few extra copies and selling them on eBay.)
Industry scuttlebutt suggests Valenti was keen on placating the creative community, which has vociferously protested the ban. Studio chiefs at Paramount, Universal and Sony also adopted a conciliatory attitude while the heads of Warner Bros. and Fox, widely credited with engineering the unpopular decision, were harder to convince.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) is purportedly involved in the talks as well, hashing out possible penalties if a screener is pirated. The organization, which was not involved in hatching the ban plan, has remained largely silent on the controversy.
Not so Hollywood's creative community.
First to cry foul were the indie studios and specialty distribution groups who complained the ban had less to do with preventing piracy than keeping the smaller distributors from scoring major Hollywood awards.
Next, 140 of the Industry's most esteemed directors, including Martin Scorsese (news), David Lynch (news) and Francis Ford Coppola (news), sent an open letter to Valenti criticizing the move, which they said prevented their films from getting noticed.
Then came the actors, more than 300 of them, including Jodie Foster (news), Sean Penn (news), Holly Hunter (news) and Nick Nolte (news), who signed another missive, calling for an end to the ban.
The latest group to gripe about the screener ban was the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (news - web sites), which threatened last week to nix its year-end awards ceremony unless the movie studios repealed the prohibition. It is not immediately clear if the MPAA's reported compromise will affect the L.A. critics' cancellation.
The New York Film Critics Circle (news - web sites) is currently polling its members to see if they want to follow L.A.'s lead. Ditto the National Society of Film Critics (news - web sites). However, any action by those groups is unlikely to take place until after the MPAA's announcement this week.
The upcoming verdict is being closely followed by all parties. A source told Variety that up to 10 antitrust lawsuits could be filed against the studios and the MPAA if the ban is not lifted.
"There have been a lot of conversations with attorneys to look into the feasibility of lawsuits," said producer Ted Hope, a leader in the ban-the-ban campaign. "I've certainly consulted more than one attorney to find out what my recourse would be, and that's been in conjunction with other producers."
But the reported solution is generally seen to be acceptable to Hope and others.
"I find it incredibly heartening that people got behind this in such a rapid fashion and that the voices were heard," Hope told Variety. "The main thing now is that time is of the essence."
Good news for the less-seen smaller movies.
10-22-03, 05:20 PM
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Exactly. those smaller films gain a lot out of this. I'm glad that they got the backlash and brought them back.
10-22-03, 11:18 PM
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So what do all the academy memebers who've thrown out their crappy VCRs do now? It seems like they could tag digital copies a lot more secure and eaiser than blahnalog tapes. Why not send them on Laserdisc or Beta??
All the pirates have to do is throw a censor bar over the id number or name that's on screen with the tapes.
Oh well at least it's a step back into the right direction again.
Here's an idea, why not have a TIVO like unit that downloads the movies, in a propietary format, to each members tagged unit. Then the movie is deleted on it's own after a certain amount of time. It might cost a lot, but it seems like a more secure way of getting the movies to the people
Timmio
All the pirates have to do is throw a censor bar over the id number or name that's on screen with the tapes.
Oh well at least it's a step back into the right direction again.
Here's an idea, why not have a TIVO like unit that downloads the movies, in a propietary format, to each members tagged unit. Then the movie is deleted on it's own after a certain amount of time. It might cost a lot, but it seems like a more secure way of getting the movies to the people
Timmio
10-23-03, 09:49 AM
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I'm just wondering, but why doesn't the MPAA team up with the 48 hour DVD people? Seems like a disposable DVD that lasts for a limited time would be perfect for screening purposes.
10-23-03, 09:54 AM
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Originally posted by greydt
I'm just wondering, but why doesn't the MPAA team up with the 48 hour DVD people? Seems like a disposable DVD that lasts for a limited time would be perfect for screening purposes.
I'm just wondering, but why doesn't the MPAA team up with the 48 hour DVD people? Seems like a disposable DVD that lasts for a limited time would be perfect for screening purposes.
I just wanted to add that I hate this Jack Valenti guy. Always have always will. He seemingly cares nothing for the advancement of film as an artform, but only for the almighty buck.
10-23-03, 10:03 AM
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An article in the Washington Post today (I can't seem to find a link to the story, sorry) ultimately and ironically states why MPAA killed screeners in the first place. The writer of the article sums up the article by stating that the screeners were the coveted prize for the Academy members children who would relish in the fact that got the most recent movies in the home collection... well under that theory and in my opinion, you could see that 'certain' kids would immediatley create copies on their computers for their friends and the whole problem and point of piracy is created
