AUGUST 2006
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MUSIC - MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) air August 31 and are being broadcast from Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
MUSIC - Nominees have been announced for the 40th annual Country Music Association Awards (CMA Awards) to be held Nov. 6 in Nashville, Tenn.
BOOKS - Google to Offer Downloadable Versions of Out-of-Copyright Books by Jonathan Thaw, Bloomberg, Aug. 30 2006 -- Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, today will start allowing users to download and print books that are out of copyright in its book search engine. The titles can be viewed online or downloaded in Adobe Systems Inc.'s Acrobat PDF format, Mountain View, California- based Google said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Titles include Sir Isaac Newton's ``Principia'' and Dante's ``Inferno.'' Google earlier this month added the University of California to the list of libraries from which it is scanning books. For books protected by copyright, Google will display bibliographic information and small snippets of text. Those books can't be downloaded.
First announced in December 2004, Google's book scanning program initially included works from Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of Oxford and the New York Public Library.
Shares of Google fell $2 to $378.95 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have fallen 8.7 percent this year.
MULTIMEDIA - ADAPT (Advanced Digital Arts Production Techniques ou Techniques de Production Avancées en Art Numérique -- Digital 04 Studios est fière d’annoncer la création d’une toute nouvelle conférence à Montréal conçue pour l’industrie de la création de contenu numérique. Cet événement se tiendra le 23 et 24 septembre 2006 à l’hôtel Hyatt Regency à Montréal. Intitulé ADAPT (Advanced Digital Arts Production Techniques ou Techniques de Production Avancées en Art Numérique), cette conférence sera l’hôte d’une vingtaine de Grands Maîtres en arts visuels, plusieurs studios de renommée internationale oeuvrant dans des domaines de plus en plus inter reliés tels que le cinéma et les jeux interactifs en plus d’attirer quelques centaines d’artistes experts et en devenir.
MUSIC - American Idol Winner Taylor Hicks Sues To Prevent Sale Of Old Songs August 25, 2006 by ChartAttack.com -- American Idol winner Taylor Hicks doesn’t want people hearing songs that he wrote and recorded nine years ago, and he's filed a lawsuit against a producer who has posted them on iTunes. Hicks wrote and recorded "Son Of A Carpenter," "In Your Time" and "The Fall" in 1997. According to his suit, Nashville-based producer William Smith released the songs on iTunes and profited from them without having any legal ownership claim to them. The suit, filed by the singer's lawyers on Tuesday in Alabama's U.S. District Court, seeks compensatory and punitive damages of more than $75,000 U.S. and ownership of the allegedly illegally-released songs. Hicks is looking to recover some of the money that Smith earned from the downloads as well as all related legal expenses. Smith contacted Hicks' attorneys to tell them of his plan to release the tracks, and they responded by seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent him from selling them. The suit claims that Smith made no effort to remove the songs from the iTunes music store. The two sides entered an undisclosed settlement last week, but then Smith once again notified Hicks' counsel that he would again be making the three songs available online. The suit was filed to spare Hicks from "suffering irreparable financial harm and harm to his reputation in the entertainment industry." The crooner is seeking injunctions against Smith and claims that he breached their settlement through his "fallacious pursuit to release songs in which [he has] no rights or ownership." Hicks lawyer Michael Douglas told MTV News that the tracks that Smith has been selling appeared on an album titled In Your Time that his client released in 1997. Therefore, he said, the songs were copyrighted and protected. "We feel we have a strong case and it's just an unfortunate situation. We feel we have a strong legal stance in the matter." Smith told MTV that he recorded the tracks with some session musicians when Hicks auditioned for him in 2001, and that they received no interest from 15 different record labels when they were shopped around. When asked who owns the recordings, Smith said, "That's what the court is going to have to determine." Hicks' lawyers filed for, and received, a temporary restraining order to prevent Smith from selling the songs. Smith told TheSmokingGun.com that he doesn't want to harm Hicks' reputation and that he has turned down five-figure financial offers from various tabloids to discuss the Idol winner's past. The grey-haired Hicks, 29, signed to Arista Records after winning Idol in May and will release his major label debut on November 14. He received $750,000 from Random House this month to publish a memoir of his life titled Heart Full Of Soul that will be ghostwritten by Rolling Stone writer David Wild. The book is expected to be out next spring.
FILM - CINEMANIA FILM FESTIVAL - Montréal, August 23, 2006. ''The CINEMANIA Film Festival presents the best of francophone cinema, with English subtitles, in a friendly cine-club atmosphere. The Festival's 12th edition will be held at the Imperial Theatre (1430, Bleury, Place des Arts metro station) from Thursday, November 2nd, through Sunday, November 12th, 2006. This year, the program will present comedies, intimist dramas, controversed films, breathtaking thrillers, adventures movies and many others... Kryzysztof Kieslowski retrospective : On the 10th anniversary of Kieslowski's death, CINEMANIA is proud to present this great Polish Director's French films (La Double Vie de Véronique and the famous trilogy Trois Couleurs : Bleu, Blanc, Rouge). In order to keep up with the tradition, many presentations will be followed by Q & A sessions with Directors and Actors. Those sessions will be hosted by movie critic André Lavoie (Le Devoir). In addition, the Brûlerie St-Denis will once again, participate to the Festival, giving the public a nice cozy place to relax. All tickets will be available at the Imperial Theatre. Web site : http://www.cinemaniafilmfestival.com/
MUSIC LINKS
SOCAN
Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS)
Music Publishers' Association
The Pride
Music History Association
CMRRA
Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA)
FrancoFolies de Montréal
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
BOOK LINKS National Book Foundation Writers Guild of Canada Writers Guild of America
Editors' Association of Canada Association of American Publishers
MOVIES & TV & Radio LINKS The Museum of Television & Radio Screenwriters Guild(SGA)
California Film Commission
Television Critics Association
Access Copyright
Academy Awards
Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
Directors Guild of America
Golden Globe Awards
British Academy Film Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
Le Festival des films du monde de Montréal
BET Awards Genie Awards
Chlotrudis Awards
Teen Choice Awards
Aurora Awards
Internet Movie Awards
Young Artist Awards
American Cinema Foundation
Bubakar Awards
Los Angeles Film Critics Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
Omni Intermedia Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Humanitas Prize
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Awards
Imagen Awards
AFI Awards BMI Awards
NAACP Image Awards
Dadasaheb Phalke Award
Trori Academy of Motion Picture Recognition
Moviefone: Moviegoer Awards
Film Festivals
TV - Cable Industry - The annual Kaitz Foundation Dinner is the cable industry's most prestigious fundraising event. Proceeds support vital programs providing internship experiences, mentoring, and leadership development for women and ethnic minorities. These programs are sponsored by Kaitz Foundation beneficiaries: the Emma Bowen Foundation, the National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), and Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). As the centerpiece of cable's annual Diversity Week activities in New York City, the dinner will be held September 13, 2006. This year's dinner features the theme Expressions of Diversity.
FILM - New Toronto International Film Festival award honours craft of film producing by cbc.ca 15aug2006 -- A new award celebrating the role of the film producer — those "who go to the wall" to get films made — has been established for the Toronto International Film Festival, organizers announced Monday. The new honour, which carries a cash prize of $10,000, is presented in partnership with the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association, a nonprofit trade group. The award is a means to acknowledge the craft of producing and the challenges of the job, said Robin Cass, producer for Triptych Media and co-chair of the producers association's feature film committee. "It's not an easy thing to do to pull off a movie," he told CBC Arts Online on Monday afternoon. The award is "not about best film," he added. "It's about really looking at what the craft of producing is and why it's important." The producer of any Canadian feature film presented at this year's festival is eligible, with the four-member jury getting carte blanche to award the prize to "whomever they want," whether it be a first-time producer or a Canadian veteran, Cass said. David Hamilton, who produced such films as Water and Bollywood/Hollywood, will chair the jury, which also includes filmmaker Norman Jewison, C.R.A.Z.Y. producer Pierre Even and Shelley Gillen, head of creative affairs at Movie Central. A committee will filter through material about all of this year's Canadian films and compile a short list. Hamilton and the jury will then approach each producer on the list to discuss his or her career and views on the craft of producing, before ultimately selecting a winner. The inaugural award will be presented at an industry event Sept. 8, the second day of the festival. "Eventually, I hope it's something people will anticipate," Cass said. "If it happened to go to a younger producer that wasn't really known, well, what a great way to go through the festival," he said. Festival organizers also announced on Monday the finalists for Telefilm Canada's seventh annual Pitch This competition, a contest in which filmmakers must pitch their project to an audience of industry professionals and delegates during this year's event. This year's finalists are: Steven N. Bray and Jessica Wallace, Widow's Row. Anthony Del Col, Outsourced. Sheldon Inkol, Once Upon a Revolution. Kerry Elizabeth McPherson, The Year of the Moth. David Miller and Marcus Robinson, The Innocents. Mark Montefiore, Little Red Turnbuckle. The winner receives a $10,000 cash prize to assist with turning his or her idea into an actual movie. Past winners include Chaz Thorne, whose 2001 idea Poor Boy's Game was directed by Clement Virgo, starred Danny Glover, and recently wrapped production in Halifax. The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 7-16.
ENTERTAINMENT - A New York City based entertainment website Professional Rockstar offers a unique perspective on the music industry including a recent exposé on the Sundance Music Festival.
COPYRIGHT - CANADIAN ARTISTS CALL FOR BALANCED COPYRIGHT PROTECTION - A coalition ofCanadian artists has written to the government to call for balanced copyrightreform. The group, Appropriation Art, is asking for fair use provisions andcalling for the government to reject anti-circumvention provisions. For thetext of the open letter, see: www.appropriationart.ca/
FRENCH COURT LEAVES INTERNET COPYRIGHT LAW UNCHANGED - France's ConstitutionalCourt largely affirmed the country's new law on Internet copyright. The law,which was passed in June 2006, is aimed at forcing online music providers suchas Apple's iTunes to allow its music to be played on other music stores'devices. The Court held that the law was not tightly defined enough to preventanti-pirating measures. France's Socialist Party has challenged the law,claiming that it sacrifices consumer interests to big companies.
JAMES JOYCE ESTATE SUED OVER FAIR USE - An English professor in California issuing James Joyce's estate for refusing to allow her to use copyright-protectedmaterial on her Web site. The Stanford University professor, in a federal courtlawsuit, is challenging the estate's claim that quoting from Joyce's publishedworks, manuscripts and private letters on her Web site is a breach ofcopyright.
KAZAA PAYS AUS$100M AND GOES LEGAL - Kazaa, the online music file-sharingcompany, has paid at least AUS$100 million in damages to four music industrygiants: Universal, SonyBMG, EMI and Warner Music in a settlement. TheAustralian P2P network also announced that it would now "play a significantrole in the growing market for licensed online distribution and authorizedexchange of copyrighted content using peer-to-peer technology." TheInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry ("IFPI") estimates that20 billion songs are still downloaded illegally each year, and cites Russia,South Korea and Canada as the worst offenders.
source: LEHarris New Media Law & E-Commerce News Vol. 10, No. 4, August 3, 2006
MUSIC - Name change heralds a dance dance revolution -- by Michael Crabb, National Post August 08, 2006 -- Toronto dance fans can put away the acetyl salicylic acid. They don't have to figure out how to say fFIDA any more.For the past 15 years, dance aficionados have been arguing whether the acronym for Toronto's Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists should be pronounced "Feeda" or "Fyda." Even the event's co-founders had trouble offering a definitive answer. Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief, forget about fFIDA and start worrying about how to say TIDF. The Toronto International Dance Festival, which opens tonight at the Young Centre in the Distillery District with a performance by iconic Canadian modern dancer Margie Gillis, is more than a re-branding of the former fFIDA. Though still functioning under the corporate, organizational umbrella of fFIDA, the TIDF is a whole new beast.Gone are the days when festival artists, according to fringe custom, would compete for a spot on the schedule by throwing their names in a hat. The TIDF, at least so far as its indoor shows are concerned, is a fully curated event. Michael Menegon, fFIDA's sole artistic director for the past several festivals, now decides who gets to perform. Even the outdoor events -- "site-specific" performances at various spots throughout the Distillery District that often yield some of the festival's zaniest moments -- have to get Menegon's approval to ensure they are "suitable" for the kind of family audiences that might encounter them. It could be argued that this new regime is a betrayal of the free-spirited ideals that inspired Menegon and choreographer Allen Kaeja to found fFIDA in 1991, but Menegon, not unreasonably, sees it more as a natural evolution and pragmatic response to a changing marketplace. "Think of it as fFIDA [Menegon says "Fyda"] wearing bigger clothes; just growing up a bit." The festival has, in fact, been upscaling for many years, moving from the Winchester Street Theatre to Buddies in Bad Times and finally to the Distillery District, all while tweaking the programming in the hope of appealing to more than a small core audience of dedicated dance fans. With limited public funding, ticket sales have always been crucial. The festival sustained a body blow in 2003 with the Aug. 14 blackout. Twenty five shows had to be cancelled and fFIDA's finances plunged into the red. For a while it looked as if the festival might not survive. Even now its programming ambitions are partially constrained by the burden of a $25,000 accumulated deficit. Meanwhile, the projected budget has leapt from $150,000 last year to a whopping $225,000 for the first TIDF. Yet, as he contemplates the risks involved in moving into what he calls "a higher bracket of presentation," Menegon is confident that the TIDF -- even with significantly higher ticket prices for indoor shows -- will spur public interest in a way fFIDA never managed to achieve. Headline acts such as Gillis, an evening featuring A-list choreographer/dancers Peggy Baker, Claudia Moore and Marie Josee Chartier and a rare Toronto appearance by Dancetheatre David Earle with the Penderecki String Quartet are supplemented by the alluring prospect of Chicago's Breakbone DanceCo -- they have their own "Bodyslam" technique -- and Mexico's multi-disciplinary La Manga Video and Dance Company. Three mixed programs during the TIDF's first week are reminiscent of the old fFIDA programming formula, and a number of special offerings such as the popular multi-staged, booze-while-you-watch Grande Scale Event in the Distillery District's Fermenting Cellar also remain. Menegon emphasizes that the new festival still retains its experimental edge -- he urges even the established artists to try something new -- and is committed "to supporting the growth of artists and the art form." He's picked some of the most promising emerging artists to open many of the mainstage -- Baillie Theatre -- shows and is welcoming a culturally diverse range of community-based dance groups to perform on the open stage in Trinity Square. Says Menegon, "The key to it all is staying connected to the local dance scene." - The Toronto International Dance Festival runs August 8-19 at the Distillery District (south of Front Street between Parliament and Cherry, in Toronto). Ticketed events, from $16, can be booked at www.artsboxoffice.ca or 416-504-7529. Check www.tidf.org for programme details.
FILM - Hollywood embraces the downloadable movie - Wall Street Journal, 03aug2006 -- Movie studios, fearful of piracy, have been slow to offer their product online. However, with slowing DVD sales and the potential for higher profit margins, Hollywood is racing to get online, and nearly a dozen movie-distribution services will be selling films within a few months.
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© ™ Mark Vinet & Wadem Publishing
Mark Vinet website
MUSIC - MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) air August 31 and are being broadcast from Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
MUSIC - Nominees have been announced for the 40th annual Country Music Association Awards (CMA Awards) to be held Nov. 6 in Nashville, Tenn.
BOOKS - Google to Offer Downloadable Versions of Out-of-Copyright Books by Jonathan Thaw, Bloomberg, Aug. 30 2006 -- Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, today will start allowing users to download and print books that are out of copyright in its book search engine. The titles can be viewed online or downloaded in Adobe Systems Inc.'s Acrobat PDF format, Mountain View, California- based Google said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Titles include Sir Isaac Newton's ``Principia'' and Dante's ``Inferno.'' Google earlier this month added the University of California to the list of libraries from which it is scanning books. For books protected by copyright, Google will display bibliographic information and small snippets of text. Those books can't be downloaded.
First announced in December 2004, Google's book scanning program initially included works from Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Michigan, University of Oxford and the New York Public Library.
Shares of Google fell $2 to $378.95 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have fallen 8.7 percent this year.
MULTIMEDIA - ADAPT (Advanced Digital Arts Production Techniques ou Techniques de Production Avancées en Art Numérique -- Digital 04 Studios est fière d’annoncer la création d’une toute nouvelle conférence à Montréal conçue pour l’industrie de la création de contenu numérique. Cet événement se tiendra le 23 et 24 septembre 2006 à l’hôtel Hyatt Regency à Montréal. Intitulé ADAPT (Advanced Digital Arts Production Techniques ou Techniques de Production Avancées en Art Numérique), cette conférence sera l’hôte d’une vingtaine de Grands Maîtres en arts visuels, plusieurs studios de renommée internationale oeuvrant dans des domaines de plus en plus inter reliés tels que le cinéma et les jeux interactifs en plus d’attirer quelques centaines d’artistes experts et en devenir.
MUSIC - American Idol Winner Taylor Hicks Sues To Prevent Sale Of Old Songs August 25, 2006 by ChartAttack.com -- American Idol winner Taylor Hicks doesn’t want people hearing songs that he wrote and recorded nine years ago, and he's filed a lawsuit against a producer who has posted them on iTunes. Hicks wrote and recorded "Son Of A Carpenter," "In Your Time" and "The Fall" in 1997. According to his suit, Nashville-based producer William Smith released the songs on iTunes and profited from them without having any legal ownership claim to them. The suit, filed by the singer's lawyers on Tuesday in Alabama's U.S. District Court, seeks compensatory and punitive damages of more than $75,000 U.S. and ownership of the allegedly illegally-released songs. Hicks is looking to recover some of the money that Smith earned from the downloads as well as all related legal expenses. Smith contacted Hicks' attorneys to tell them of his plan to release the tracks, and they responded by seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent him from selling them. The suit claims that Smith made no effort to remove the songs from the iTunes music store. The two sides entered an undisclosed settlement last week, but then Smith once again notified Hicks' counsel that he would again be making the three songs available online. The suit was filed to spare Hicks from "suffering irreparable financial harm and harm to his reputation in the entertainment industry." The crooner is seeking injunctions against Smith and claims that he breached their settlement through his "fallacious pursuit to release songs in which [he has] no rights or ownership." Hicks lawyer Michael Douglas told MTV News that the tracks that Smith has been selling appeared on an album titled In Your Time that his client released in 1997. Therefore, he said, the songs were copyrighted and protected. "We feel we have a strong case and it's just an unfortunate situation. We feel we have a strong legal stance in the matter." Smith told MTV that he recorded the tracks with some session musicians when Hicks auditioned for him in 2001, and that they received no interest from 15 different record labels when they were shopped around. When asked who owns the recordings, Smith said, "That's what the court is going to have to determine." Hicks' lawyers filed for, and received, a temporary restraining order to prevent Smith from selling the songs. Smith told TheSmokingGun.com that he doesn't want to harm Hicks' reputation and that he has turned down five-figure financial offers from various tabloids to discuss the Idol winner's past. The grey-haired Hicks, 29, signed to Arista Records after winning Idol in May and will release his major label debut on November 14. He received $750,000 from Random House this month to publish a memoir of his life titled Heart Full Of Soul that will be ghostwritten by Rolling Stone writer David Wild. The book is expected to be out next spring.
FILM - CINEMANIA FILM FESTIVAL - Montréal, August 23, 2006. ''The CINEMANIA Film Festival presents the best of francophone cinema, with English subtitles, in a friendly cine-club atmosphere. The Festival's 12th edition will be held at the Imperial Theatre (1430, Bleury, Place des Arts metro station) from Thursday, November 2nd, through Sunday, November 12th, 2006. This year, the program will present comedies, intimist dramas, controversed films, breathtaking thrillers, adventures movies and many others... Kryzysztof Kieslowski retrospective : On the 10th anniversary of Kieslowski's death, CINEMANIA is proud to present this great Polish Director's French films (La Double Vie de Véronique and the famous trilogy Trois Couleurs : Bleu, Blanc, Rouge). In order to keep up with the tradition, many presentations will be followed by Q & A sessions with Directors and Actors. Those sessions will be hosted by movie critic André Lavoie (Le Devoir). In addition, the Brûlerie St-Denis will once again, participate to the Festival, giving the public a nice cozy place to relax. All tickets will be available at the Imperial Theatre. Web site : http://www.cinemaniafilmfestival.com/
MUSIC LINKS
SOCAN
Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS)
Music Publishers' Association
The Pride
Music History Association
CMRRA
Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA)
FrancoFolies de Montréal
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
BOOK LINKS National Book Foundation Writers Guild of Canada Writers Guild of America
Editors' Association of Canada Association of American Publishers
MOVIES & TV & Radio LINKS The Museum of Television & Radio Screenwriters Guild(SGA)
California Film Commission
Television Critics Association
Access Copyright
Academy Awards
Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
Directors Guild of America
Golden Globe Awards
British Academy Film Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
Le Festival des films du monde de Montréal
BET Awards Genie Awards
Chlotrudis Awards
Teen Choice Awards
Aurora Awards
Internet Movie Awards
Young Artist Awards
American Cinema Foundation
Bubakar Awards
Los Angeles Film Critics Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
Omni Intermedia Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Humanitas Prize
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Awards
Imagen Awards
AFI Awards BMI Awards
NAACP Image Awards
Dadasaheb Phalke Award
Trori Academy of Motion Picture Recognition
Moviefone: Moviegoer Awards
Film Festivals
TV - Cable Industry - The annual Kaitz Foundation Dinner is the cable industry's most prestigious fundraising event. Proceeds support vital programs providing internship experiences, mentoring, and leadership development for women and ethnic minorities. These programs are sponsored by Kaitz Foundation beneficiaries: the Emma Bowen Foundation, the National Association of Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), and Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT). As the centerpiece of cable's annual Diversity Week activities in New York City, the dinner will be held September 13, 2006. This year's dinner features the theme Expressions of Diversity.
FILM - New Toronto International Film Festival award honours craft of film producing by cbc.ca 15aug2006 -- A new award celebrating the role of the film producer — those "who go to the wall" to get films made — has been established for the Toronto International Film Festival, organizers announced Monday. The new honour, which carries a cash prize of $10,000, is presented in partnership with the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association, a nonprofit trade group. The award is a means to acknowledge the craft of producing and the challenges of the job, said Robin Cass, producer for Triptych Media and co-chair of the producers association's feature film committee. "It's not an easy thing to do to pull off a movie," he told CBC Arts Online on Monday afternoon. The award is "not about best film," he added. "It's about really looking at what the craft of producing is and why it's important." The producer of any Canadian feature film presented at this year's festival is eligible, with the four-member jury getting carte blanche to award the prize to "whomever they want," whether it be a first-time producer or a Canadian veteran, Cass said. David Hamilton, who produced such films as Water and Bollywood/Hollywood, will chair the jury, which also includes filmmaker Norman Jewison, C.R.A.Z.Y. producer Pierre Even and Shelley Gillen, head of creative affairs at Movie Central. A committee will filter through material about all of this year's Canadian films and compile a short list. Hamilton and the jury will then approach each producer on the list to discuss his or her career and views on the craft of producing, before ultimately selecting a winner. The inaugural award will be presented at an industry event Sept. 8, the second day of the festival. "Eventually, I hope it's something people will anticipate," Cass said. "If it happened to go to a younger producer that wasn't really known, well, what a great way to go through the festival," he said. Festival organizers also announced on Monday the finalists for Telefilm Canada's seventh annual Pitch This competition, a contest in which filmmakers must pitch their project to an audience of industry professionals and delegates during this year's event. This year's finalists are: Steven N. Bray and Jessica Wallace, Widow's Row. Anthony Del Col, Outsourced. Sheldon Inkol, Once Upon a Revolution. Kerry Elizabeth McPherson, The Year of the Moth. David Miller and Marcus Robinson, The Innocents. Mark Montefiore, Little Red Turnbuckle. The winner receives a $10,000 cash prize to assist with turning his or her idea into an actual movie. Past winners include Chaz Thorne, whose 2001 idea Poor Boy's Game was directed by Clement Virgo, starred Danny Glover, and recently wrapped production in Halifax. The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 7-16.
ENTERTAINMENT - A New York City based entertainment website Professional Rockstar offers a unique perspective on the music industry including a recent exposé on the Sundance Music Festival.
COPYRIGHT - CANADIAN ARTISTS CALL FOR BALANCED COPYRIGHT PROTECTION - A coalition ofCanadian artists has written to the government to call for balanced copyrightreform. The group, Appropriation Art, is asking for fair use provisions andcalling for the government to reject anti-circumvention provisions. For thetext of the open letter, see: www.appropriationart.ca/
FRENCH COURT LEAVES INTERNET COPYRIGHT LAW UNCHANGED - France's ConstitutionalCourt largely affirmed the country's new law on Internet copyright. The law,which was passed in June 2006, is aimed at forcing online music providers suchas Apple's iTunes to allow its music to be played on other music stores'devices. The Court held that the law was not tightly defined enough to preventanti-pirating measures. France's Socialist Party has challenged the law,claiming that it sacrifices consumer interests to big companies.
JAMES JOYCE ESTATE SUED OVER FAIR USE - An English professor in California issuing James Joyce's estate for refusing to allow her to use copyright-protectedmaterial on her Web site. The Stanford University professor, in a federal courtlawsuit, is challenging the estate's claim that quoting from Joyce's publishedworks, manuscripts and private letters on her Web site is a breach ofcopyright.
KAZAA PAYS AUS$100M AND GOES LEGAL - Kazaa, the online music file-sharingcompany, has paid at least AUS$100 million in damages to four music industrygiants: Universal, SonyBMG, EMI and Warner Music in a settlement. TheAustralian P2P network also announced that it would now "play a significantrole in the growing market for licensed online distribution and authorizedexchange of copyrighted content using peer-to-peer technology." TheInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry ("IFPI") estimates that20 billion songs are still downloaded illegally each year, and cites Russia,South Korea and Canada as the worst offenders.
source: LEHarris New Media Law & E-Commerce News Vol. 10, No. 4, August 3, 2006
MUSIC - Name change heralds a dance dance revolution -- by Michael Crabb, National Post August 08, 2006 -- Toronto dance fans can put away the acetyl salicylic acid. They don't have to figure out how to say fFIDA any more.For the past 15 years, dance aficionados have been arguing whether the acronym for Toronto's Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists should be pronounced "Feeda" or "Fyda." Even the event's co-founders had trouble offering a definitive answer. Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief, forget about fFIDA and start worrying about how to say TIDF. The Toronto International Dance Festival, which opens tonight at the Young Centre in the Distillery District with a performance by iconic Canadian modern dancer Margie Gillis, is more than a re-branding of the former fFIDA. Though still functioning under the corporate, organizational umbrella of fFIDA, the TIDF is a whole new beast.Gone are the days when festival artists, according to fringe custom, would compete for a spot on the schedule by throwing their names in a hat. The TIDF, at least so far as its indoor shows are concerned, is a fully curated event. Michael Menegon, fFIDA's sole artistic director for the past several festivals, now decides who gets to perform. Even the outdoor events -- "site-specific" performances at various spots throughout the Distillery District that often yield some of the festival's zaniest moments -- have to get Menegon's approval to ensure they are "suitable" for the kind of family audiences that might encounter them. It could be argued that this new regime is a betrayal of the free-spirited ideals that inspired Menegon and choreographer Allen Kaeja to found fFIDA in 1991, but Menegon, not unreasonably, sees it more as a natural evolution and pragmatic response to a changing marketplace. "Think of it as fFIDA [Menegon says "Fyda"] wearing bigger clothes; just growing up a bit." The festival has, in fact, been upscaling for many years, moving from the Winchester Street Theatre to Buddies in Bad Times and finally to the Distillery District, all while tweaking the programming in the hope of appealing to more than a small core audience of dedicated dance fans. With limited public funding, ticket sales have always been crucial. The festival sustained a body blow in 2003 with the Aug. 14 blackout. Twenty five shows had to be cancelled and fFIDA's finances plunged into the red. For a while it looked as if the festival might not survive. Even now its programming ambitions are partially constrained by the burden of a $25,000 accumulated deficit. Meanwhile, the projected budget has leapt from $150,000 last year to a whopping $225,000 for the first TIDF. Yet, as he contemplates the risks involved in moving into what he calls "a higher bracket of presentation," Menegon is confident that the TIDF -- even with significantly higher ticket prices for indoor shows -- will spur public interest in a way fFIDA never managed to achieve. Headline acts such as Gillis, an evening featuring A-list choreographer/dancers Peggy Baker, Claudia Moore and Marie Josee Chartier and a rare Toronto appearance by Dancetheatre David Earle with the Penderecki String Quartet are supplemented by the alluring prospect of Chicago's Breakbone DanceCo -- they have their own "Bodyslam" technique -- and Mexico's multi-disciplinary La Manga Video and Dance Company. Three mixed programs during the TIDF's first week are reminiscent of the old fFIDA programming formula, and a number of special offerings such as the popular multi-staged, booze-while-you-watch Grande Scale Event in the Distillery District's Fermenting Cellar also remain. Menegon emphasizes that the new festival still retains its experimental edge -- he urges even the established artists to try something new -- and is committed "to supporting the growth of artists and the art form." He's picked some of the most promising emerging artists to open many of the mainstage -- Baillie Theatre -- shows and is welcoming a culturally diverse range of community-based dance groups to perform on the open stage in Trinity Square. Says Menegon, "The key to it all is staying connected to the local dance scene." - The Toronto International Dance Festival runs August 8-19 at the Distillery District (south of Front Street between Parliament and Cherry, in Toronto). Ticketed events, from $16, can be booked at www.artsboxoffice.ca or 416-504-7529. Check www.tidf.org for programme details.
FILM - Hollywood embraces the downloadable movie - Wall Street Journal, 03aug2006 -- Movie studios, fearful of piracy, have been slow to offer their product online. However, with slowing DVD sales and the potential for higher profit margins, Hollywood is racing to get online, and nearly a dozen movie-distribution services will be selling films within a few months.
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