AG HOLDER SAYS HE’S NOT DOING HOLLYWOOD’S BIDDING

Attorney General Eric Holder has denied claims by Kim Dotcom, the founder of the now-defunct Megaupload file-sharing site, that the the government acted at the behest of Hollywood studios to shut down the site and extradite him to the U.S. to face copyright-infringement charges. Speaking with Radio New Zealand, Holder said that the case “was […]

HOBBIT COINS: INSTANT INFLATION

The New Zealand post office is taking advantage of the country’s setting as Middle Earth for the upcoming The Hobbit movies. As reported by today’s (Thursday) Los Angeles Times, New Zealand Post has begun minting coins and printing stamps featuring characters from the movie that are due to go on sale on Nov.1, about six […]

DOTCOM PROSECUTION CONTINUES TO BACKFIRE

The prosecution of alleged online piracy tycoon Kim Dotcom and his associates is quickly becoming the backfire heard ’round the world. In the latest revelations about alleged law enforcement and prosecutorial improprieties in the case, court documents now suggest that New Zealand police provided inaccurate information to the country’s equivalent of the CIA that led […]

AVENGERS OVERWHELMS OVERSEAS

If results in Australia are any indication, predictions that The Avengers will take over as the No. 1 film at the box office this year may be right on the mark. According to trade reports, the movie opened down-under on Wednesday with $6 million, exceeded only by the last Harry Potter movie, which took in […]

CAMERON REJECTS HOLLYWOOD; AVATAR 2 TO FILM IN NEW ZEALAND

While James Cameron shot much of his Oscar-winning Avatar in U.S. locations, such as Kauai and the Big Island in Hawaii and the converted aircraft assembly plant in Playa Vista, CA where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose, many scenes were also shot at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand, and virtually all of […]

HOBBIT CASTING CALL CANCELED OVER SAFETY FEARS

An open casting call for women under five feet tall and men under five feet four inches to appear as extras in the Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit, had to be abruptly canceled in New Zealand today (Tuesday) when more than 3,000 people turned up. According to NZ Newswire, the producers had expected […]

DOJ, FBI GO TO WAR AGAINST PIRATES

Acting on a federal grand jury indictment alleging copyright infringement and other related crimes, the U.S. government on Thursday shut down the popular “cyberlocker” MegaUpload, arrested at least four people, confiscated servers, and conducted search warrants in the U.S. and eight other countries. The indictment claimed that MegaUpload’s operators, four of whom were arrested in […]

CYBER VIGILANTES GO TO WAR AGAINST DOJ, FBI

Within minutes after the Department of Justice shut down the cyberlocker MegaUpload on Thursday, the “hacktivist” collective Anonymous managed to shut down the Department of Justice’s and the FBI’s own websites, as well as those of the MPAA and the recording industry’s publishing group BMI and Universal Music, using what is called a distributed denial […]

THE HOBBIT: WHAT YOU HEARD MONTHS AGO IS TRUE

On a slow holiday news day, MGM, New Line and Warner Bros. confirmed what had already been bandied about for months: that the first of the Lord of the Rings prequels will be titled The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the second will be titled The Hobbit: There and Back Again. They will be released […]

WIKILEAKS: ANOTHER BUSH ADMINISTRATION WHACK AT MICHAEL MOORE

The U.S. deputy chief of mission in New Zealand, David Burnett, attempted to block a planned screening of Michael Moore’s anti-Iraq-war documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, when he heard that it was being hosted by a New Zealand cabinet minister, according to documents contained in the WikiLeaks papers and reported today (Wednesday) in Britain’s Guardian newspaper. In […]

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