WHERE TO WATCH MOVIES ONLINE LEGALLY? THE MPAA SHOWS YOU

In an apparent effort to direct people away from pirate websites and toward legitimate websites where they download or stream movies and TV shows, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has launched a website, www.WheretoWatch.org, that lists all the legitimate video websites, with a link to each of them. Twenty-five websites are listed, 11 […]

PIRATE MOBILE APPS TARGETED BY STUDIOS

Movie studios are increasingly monitoring apps developed for smartphones and tablet devices that employ unlicensed content from their films, Reuters reported on Thursday, and they are often finding those bootleg apps available via top Internet destinations like Google Play and iTunes. Only last week, the wire service said, Warner Bros. sent Google a “take down” […]

PIRATES FIND A NEW WEAPON

Every time the Motion Picture Association of America wins an overseas battle to force ISPs to block the Pirate Bay site, users find a way to elude the restriction. One of the most popular methods is to use a proxy site. But the website TorrentFreak.com noted on Monday that users of those proxy sites are […]

U.K. MAN SENTENCED TO 4 YEARS FOR “FACILITATING” PIRACY

The owner of a British website that allegedly “facilitated” copyright infringement has been sentenced to four years in prison after a private anti-piracy group collected an enormous dossier of evidence about his activities and his private life, including detailed information about his wife and family, according to TorrentFreak.com. Before being sentenced, Anton Vickerman, who ran […]

HOW ARE U.K. CENSORS DIFFERENT FROM U.S. CENSORS?

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has delineated its differences with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) over the ratings of films. In an interview with reporters following the release of the board’s annual report, BBFC director David Cooke said that the main difference between the two censorship boards is that “the U.S. […]

LYNCH’S CHAINED MAY GO OUT BRANDED NC-17

Since the MPAA ratings board routinely bestows an R rating on movies with the most sadistic non-sexual violence, industry watchers on Tuesday were speculating about the content of Jennifer Lynch’s new movie Chained, whose NC-17 rating was upheld by the MPAA’s Classification and Rating Administration. It marks the second time that a Lynch film has […]

MPAA CHIEF CHRIS DODD URGES THEATERS TO “ADAPT”

MPAA chief Christopher Dodd has called on movie theater owners to “adapt” to the new digital age of smartphones and tablet computers. “This new age of the connected consumer is here, and so we must adapt,” he told the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas. He noted that although revenue is up 17 percent from last […]

WILL BULLY CONTROVERSY SHAKE UP MPAA RATINGS SYSTEM?

The controversy over The Weinstein Bros.’ Bully could “turn out to be a pivotal chapter in the battle to overhaul the Motion Picture Assn. of America’s ratings system,” Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein wrote today (Thursday). Goldstein noted that although John Fithian, head of the National Association of Theatre Owners, had warned that theaters […]

BULLY A HIT IN ITS FIRST WEEK

Despite its being released unrated, The Weinstein Co.’s controversial documentary Bully rode the wave of its controversy to a $115,000 opening in five theaters over the weekend — or $23,000 per theater, a huge amount for any nonfiction flick. The studio said that it will add Toronto to the list next Friday and expand into […]

MOVIE REVIEWS: BULLY

The Weinstein Co.’s Bully is garnering some of the strongest reviews of the year, with several critics stepping out of their roles as appraisers and becoming advocates for it — many of them condemning the Motion Picture Association of America for its decision to slap the film with an R-rating because of language. (The Weinstein […]

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