In the past few weeks there has been a flurry of activity with respect to international regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as the Bletchley Declaration spearheaded by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence signed by US President Biden, as well as the G7 AI Code of Conduct.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy organization, has shut down tt-torrent.com, a torrent website that was operated out of Thailand.
New national polling conducted by spark*insights for the Motion Picture Association – Canada (MPA-Canada) shows Canadians see global studios and streaming companies as valuable contributors to Canada – filming movies and series across the country, employing Canadians, and exposing global audiences to made in Canada content on streaming services.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and its global content protection arm, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), have partnered with the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) to launch two new public service announcements that inform consumers about the many harms they face when viewing pirated movies and television shows.
This has been a busy couple of weeks for national and international declarations on Artificial Intelligence (AI). First the G7 issued its International Code of Conduct for Advanced AI Systems on October 30.
Intellectual Property Rights are said to symbolize innovation, creation, and progress. Why would they not? We have been hearing this for quite some time. Because we have had it for so long, a part of us does believe that IP helps generate knowledge.
There are countless unsung heroes of the civil rights movement who will never get the recognition they deserve, yet it’s hard to imagine an overlooked figure more central to the cause and more courageous and capacious in spirit than Bayard Rustin.
On 7th November 2023, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a press release (“Press Release”) requesting Principal Entities (“PEs”) such as banks, other financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, business entities, real estate companies etc. to onboard the Digital Consent Acquisition (“DCA”) facility as per the timelines outlined in the direction issued by the TRAI dated 2nd June 2023 under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (“TCCCPR”).
In an effort to combat rampant digital piracy in Vietnam, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy organization, continues to target major Vietnam-based piracy syndicates. Since June, ACE has shut down multiple piracy websites belonging to the same piracy syndicate operating out of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, worked closely with the country of Georgia’s Ministry of Finance to shut down two of the nation’s largest illegal streaming sites, adjaranet.com and imovies.cc.
The Persian Version won both the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in the U.S Dramatic Competition at Sundance this year, and for good reason. The film is a feel-good dramedy that combines stories of traditional Iranian culture with those of the Iranian American experience with a decidedly modern touch.
In Pain Hustlers, the opioid crisis takes on a different tenor than that previously seen in hard-hitting dramas like Hulu’s limited series Dopesick and fellow Netflix’s own Painkiller.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy organization, has shut down live sports piracy site Watchwrestling.ai and its associated domains, which were being operated out of India.
Denise Huth is not a fan of horror. And that’s surprising, considering that she produced the biggest sci-fi/horror series in television history, The Walking Dead.
With more than 70 films to her credit, including Malcolm X (1992), Amistad (1997), Selma (2014), Black Panther (2018), and Dolemite Is My Name (2019), costume designer Ruth E.
I published a critical comparison of the activist approach taken by the US Copyright Office on AI and copyright issues, compared to the passive non-response from Canada’s copyright policy makers, the department with statutory responsibility for copyright policy (ISED, aka Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada) released a consultation paper on this very issue.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading antipiracy coalition, has shut down two of Latin America’s largest and most visited Spanish-language piracy rings.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Entertainment Industry College Outreach Program (EICOP) today announced this year’s MPA-EICOP Entertainment Law and Policy Fellows’ studio placements.
As noted in part one of our interview with Paul Cameron, he took his first turns at directing for series helming two episodes of Westworld, and he drew on his experience as a cinematographer and from his work for some pretty important mentors.
As director of photography, Paul Cameron has shot such disparate films and series as Man On Fire, Collateral, Déjà Vu, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Westworld.
I had the opportunity to visit Taiwan in August, where I once (in the last century) served as Director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, aka the Canadian Representative to Taiwan.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, today applauds the Taiwanese Police for their successful raid against the distributors of illicit streaming devices (ISDs) that enabled users to stream pirated content through pre-loaded apps, and for their commitment to taking firm action against commercial-scale copyright infringement.
For Ahsoka cinematographer Eric Steelberg, lensing the latest live-action Star Wars series was a dream come true. Growing up in thrall to George Lucas’s original trilogy, Steelberg would find himself on set while filming the new series, surrounded by massive spaceships both practical and virtual, astonished by his own job.
After winning three Latino Alternative Theater Awards for “Hamlet in Harlem” (Best Production, Direction, and Ensemble) Alberto Ferreras refuses to sit on his hands.
The facts of the case are such that Wynk Limited (“Wynk”) had an agreement to exploit Tips Industries Limited (“Tips”) repertoire on its internet based streaming platform and when that agreement expired, there were various negotiations between Tips and Wynk.
The question of whether works that are generated in whole or in part by Artificial Intelligence (AI) should enjoy copyright protection is a hot topic at the moment. It is wrapped up in the question of who can claim the protection of copyright.
When writer-director Gareth Edwards finished Rogue One, he took a road trip to his girlfriend’s home in Iowa. Along the way, he noticed a Japanese factory in the middle of a cornfield and started dreaming up a new story.
On 11th August 2023, the Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 received President of India’s assent after passage in both the Houses of the Parliament and became a law i.e. the Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDP Act”).
Alana Watts is a life-long movie fan and leads Deluxe’s Cinema team across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. As Studios Director, Alana plays a pivotal role between cinemas and distributors, helping to bring films to screen for movie lovers to enjoy.
The all-party Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British House of Commons has just (August 30) issued a welcome report condemning plans announced by Britain’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in June of 2022 to create a limitless copyright exemption to enable tech companies to develop artificial intelligence (AI) applications without having to obtain permission from rights holders or to acquire a licence.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) released a statement today applauding the Philippine ISPs and the IPO Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) for signing a voluntary site-blocking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to disable access to illegal piracy websites.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, today announced it has shut down Uptobox and Uptostream, two of the digital piracy world’s most notorious illegal video hosts.
When Sam Altman, CEO of the company behind ChatGPT, gave Congressional testimony about the dangers of AI, many believed Altman had genuinely altruistic intentions.
On August 4, 2023, India’s Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2023, received Presidential assent and became the law of the land. Enactment marked the culmination of a decades-long process to update the country’s anti-piracy laws by cracking down on camcording in theatres and imposing significant penalties for distribution of illegally recorded films.
On August 11, 2023, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (“DPDPA”) became law. The provisions of the DPDPA are yet to come into effect.
In June 2023, WesternRus announced to customers with regret that it would have to suspend its piracy operation. Given that WesternRus had profited handsomely from selling films – without bearing any costs of making them – what could possibly explain its sudden demise? According to WesternRus, its profitability had been destroyed by … massive piracy!
Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank Leader Schumer, Senator Young, Senator Heinrich, Senator Rounds, and all of the senators here today for the opportunity to participate in this important forum.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, today announced the take-down of three commercial-scale piracy operations in Egypt that were illegally broadcasting live football matches and other content to audiences in the Middle East and North Africa.
The Equalizer trilogy is a wrap. For the latest and supposedly final addition to the franchise, filmmaker Antoine Fuqua and his crew take Robert McCall (Denzel Washington, Fuqua’s longtime collaborator) to Southern Italy.
Recently, India passed the long-awaited Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The internet is abuzz with discussion on the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023 which became the Act after being passed by both houses.
An elite force of female soldiers, the Agojie, is all that stands between the African Kingdom of Dahomey and the combined forces of the Oyo Empire and Mahi people. The Oyo and Mahi plan to raid Dahomey villages and sell their captives to European slavers. We open on a Mahi village where raiders heat their machetes over a fire at night.
When he returned to feature filmmaking, writer/director Clement Virgo followed his instincts. Since his last feature, Poor Boy’s Game (2007), Virgo has been directing TV, working more or less nonstop. He’s directed episodes of Empire, Netflix’s Dahmer- Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, and OWN’s megachurch drama Greenleaf.
A ruined world, decimated by a fungi-borne plague and teeming with zombified hordes and hardened survivors who can be just as dangerous. A biopic about one of the all-time greatest musical tricksters who created an astonishingly successful career parodying hit songs.
On August 3, almost 30 organizations,[i] representing 50,000 Canadian writers, visual artists and publishers released an open letter to newly appointed Heritage Minister Pascale St. Onge urging her to tackle “meaningful copyright reform”.
Big Studio Movie Licence, part of Heritage Films International, provides a blanket movie licence to organisations including senior living communities and religious institutions so they can enjoy films legally from Hollywood’s biggest studios.
Newly (and hastily) augmented with generative AI, Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, has been normalizing piracy, drumming up business for piracy rings, and instructing internet users how to access piracy sites in countries where they have been blocked pursuant to court orders.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) held a stakeholder consultation meeting on August 23, 2023, to discuss the some issues related to copyright societies.
Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) stares wide-eyed into the pond spread out in front of him; his last conversation with Albert Einstein (Tom Conti) on the potential catalytic effects of the atomic bomb has rendered him speechless. The music swells as the screen fades to black — the final scene of Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated Oppenheimer.
If the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is still wondering why it should award an Oscar for stunts, these are seven reasons to make this a reality.
The Korea Copyright Protection Agency (KCOPA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which established the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), its content protection arm and the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in a joint effort to fight digital piracy in the Asia Pacific region and other parts of the world.
This year’s theme for World IP Day (April 26) which is “Women and IP: Accelerating innovation and creativity”. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is celebrating the role of female innovators, entrepreneurs and creators across all elements of intellectual property.
On 18th November 2022, TRAI released the Recommendations on Regulatory Framework for Promoting Data Economy Through Establishment of Data Centres, Content Delivery Networks, and Interconnected Exchanges in India (“Recommendations”) which seeks to create reliable frameworks and policies.
As Bill C-18, the Online News Act, continues its step-by-step process through the Canadian Parliament, another shoe has dropped. Meta, Facebook’s parent company announced it will be laying off 13 percent of its global workforce (11,000 people) owing to two quarters of losses and a sinking share price. Meta’s valuation is down more than 70 percent so far this year, to levels not seen since 2015.
Even with the hiccup, Kennedy designed a number of period authentic sets that transport viewers back to the 1980s storyline where a Bangkok backlot (and areas of Melbourne) fill in for the slums of India. Below, Kennedy details the seemingly impossible transition, how it affected the production design and the challenges behind filming in Bangkok.
Empire State Development (ESD) today held the sixth annual New York State Multicultural Creativity Summit, an in-person and virtual interactive conference that guides content creators of diverse backgrounds to better understand and advance their careers within the film and television industry.
The NCPCR on 24th June 2022 has released the Draft Regulatory Guidelines for Child Participation in the Entertainment Industry or Any Commercial Entertainment Activity (“Draft Guidelines”), which is available on its website for 30 days for public comments.
For the Russos’ new Ryan Gosling action movie The Gray Man (streaming Friday on Netflix), Jackman spent months obsessing over a 17-minute suite before seeing a single frame of the film. Jackman explains, “If you’re trying to do something original in writing music for movies, I’ve found that if you just get the picture and go straight into writing cues, you often get distracted by the mechanics of the scene. If you really want to develop ideas, it’s useful to work away from picture.”
The series Obi-Wan Kenobi concluded to great acclaim, especially for star Ewan McGregor’s emotional performance in the title role, Moses Ingram’s intensity as Inquisitor Reva, and the astonishing cat-and-mouse game between Obi-Wan and his former protogé, Darth Vader.
At the recent 12th WTO Ministerial meeting, the first in more than four years (because of COVID), Trade Ministers reached agreement on several key decisions. Two of them of are of direct interest to copyright industries, one for what was not done (relating to an intellectual property patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines) and one related to a further extension of the 1998 moratorium on the application of customs duties to digital products.
Music is an important part of Indian culture and no weddings in India are complete without music. Understanding this, an exception of fair use of music at marriages and social festivities associated with marriage was expressly carved out under Section 52(1)(za) of the Copyright Act, 1957 vide an amendment to the Copyright Act in 2014, effective from 2015.
I often receive queries on whether one can use clippings for up to 30 seconds or less without requiring any license? Isn’t it permissible under principle of de minimis non curat lex? Can a news channel simply use songs in one of its programmes and claim defense of fair dealing under Section 52 of the Copyright Act?
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ("MIB") on 23 April 2022, issued an advisory to private TV news channels, for coverage of events and incidents in a manner violative of the Programme Code framed under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 ("the Act") and advised them to refrain from airing such cont
The Motion Picture Association’s film and television content security program, the Trusted Partner Network (TPN), today announced the appointment of Crystal Pham to the role of Vice President, Operations and Product Management. Pham will report to TPN President Terri Davies.
As you, dear reader, will know, this is a blog focused on copyright and content related issues, rather than politics, although at times there is an inevitable political spillover when dealing, for example, with the copyright dimensions of trade agreements, given that many such agreements are driven as much by political objectives as economic considerations
February 21-25 is Fair Use/Fair Dealing week, so proclaimed by a number of participating organizations in the US and Canada and organized by the Association of Research Libraries under the umbrella of fairuseweek.org. As in past years, there will be a series of online events extolling the virtues of fair use and fair dealing.
The Copyright Office vide public notice dated February 18, 2022, notified that the Pahari Performing Rights Association has filed an application for registration as a copyright society under Section 33 of the Copyright Act, 1957 for carrying out business of issuing or granting license in respect of musical works as defined under Section 2(p) of the Copyright Act, 1957 and literary work associated with musical work.
The Karnataka High Court has held that Section 63 of the Copyright Act, which prescribes a punishment of minimum 6 months that may extend to 3 years imprisonment, is cognizable offence and police can register a First Information Report, on receipt of a complaint.
Nowadays it is not uncommon for major telecommunications companies (telcos) to provide infrastructure in the form of wireless, wireline and fibre optic, cable and satellite connectivity while also directly controlling some of the content distributed via this infrastructure.
After Bollywood stars, cricketers, cartoonists, and other artists, broadcaster Viacom18 is now planning to join the NFT (or non-fungible tokens) bandwagon with launch marketplace, Fullyfaltoonft.com.
The Madras High Court in the case of Novex Communications Pvt. Ltd vs DXC Technology Pvt. Ltd & Anr has held that the business of issuing licenses in any work in which copyright subsists can only be done by a registered copyright society if the work is incorporated in a cinematograph film or a sound recording.
In a recent blogpost, Amazon called on Facebook and similar platforms to work more diligently to shut down the numerous trolls who swamp Amazon’s site with fake product reviews.
For more than twenty years and counting, media piracy apologists have repeated some variation of the argument which says, “People are willing to pay for content as long as it is made conveniently available at a fair price.”
For piracy to flourish, it requires more than crafty criminals and willing users. And its impact goes well beyond the harm it does to creators. Content theft is a $2.34 billion criminal ecosystem that mirrors the legitimate world of Netflix, Hulu, and Apple+.
“The MPA APSA Academy film Fund is the single most important film development fund in Australia simply because it rewards new and audacious ideas and is not beholden to conventional market pathways or bureaucratically acceptable finance plans.”
Will OTT platforms and movie theatres co-exist after COVID-19?
Throughout their relatively brief yet terrible reigns, both Facebook and Google have compiled enough scandals to fell most companies many times over. And yet, following both companies’ most recent earnings reports, their stocks only continue to rise.