US film, music industries roll out anti-piracy program

WASHINGTON — A new “copyright alert” system has begun rolling out this week in the United States in an effort to curb online piracy.

The system, informally known as “six strikes,” is a voluntary effort of the music and film industries, with the largest Internet service providers participating.

The program will use warnings and could result in slowed or suspended Internet connections, but users will not lose Web access entirely. Still, some civil liberties groups and Internet activists call it too invasive and warn it could unfairly penalize some users.

It is being coordinated by the Center for Copyright Information, created by the music and cinema industries and the five largest broadband Internet firms.

“We hope this cooperative, multi-stakeholder approach will serve as a model for addressing important issues facing all who participate in the digital entertainment ecosystem,” said Jill Lesser, executive director of the center.

Lesser said the program is “meant to educate rather than punish, and direct (consumers) to legal alternatives.”

She added that people who believe they get warnings in error will have “an easy to use process” to appeal, and get an independent review.

Despite the “six strikes” moniker, backers of the system say it is not intended to cut off Internet access for copyright infringers, who will get up to six warnings.

The steps announced by the big Internet firms include pop-ups, which force users to acknowledge warnings, and mechanisms to slow a user’s access to near-dialup speeds.

Some critics say that redirecting users is equivalent to a “browser hijack” while others say innocent users may be snared by the system.

“It’s an elaborate surveillance system,” said Corynne McSherry at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group.

“There will be innocent people caught up in this system, it’s inevitable.”

McSherry said another problem is a “lack of transparency” in the system, which is private and cannot be challenged in the same way as a law.

“We have an elaborate private enforcement system for copyright, because they weren’t happy with what they could get from Congress,” she said.

Internet subscribers “face consequences based on nothing more than an accusation,” McSherry said.

Other activists were even more blunt in their criticism.

“Soon your ISP will be spying on you and messing with your internet at Hollywood’s request,” said a tweet from the online activist group Fight for the Future.

The group said that under new system, “they can slow down or shut off your internet connection without any due process, claiming copyright infringement.”

But the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank, called the program “a model for addressing digital property rights without unduly inhibiting Internet use and innovation.”

Participating in the program are the five largest broadband Internet providers — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Cablevision and Verizon — covering some 85 percent of US residential customers.

The firms this week began releasing details of their enforcement.

Comcast said on its website its “progressive alerts will start out as informational and then evolve into ‘mitigation alerts’” which require customers to call the company, but that the program will not involve “termination.”

Verizon said it will implement “temporary Internet speed reductions of two or three days for customers who receive at least five alerts.”

Cablevision said it “may temporarily suspend your Internet access for a set period of time” for repeat violators.

AT&T said customers would “be required to take an extra step to review materials on an online portal that will educate them on the distribution of copyrighted content online” but also stressed its privacy protections.

AT&T vice president Ben Olson added that even though its measures are voluntary, “many customers will respond positively when first notified and will not need additional reminders.”

source: interaksyon.com

Cruise Doubts He Could Sell Rock Star Act In Film

MANILA, Philippines --- Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise once thought he wouldn’t be able to convince the public of his portrayal of fictional rock star Stacee Jaxx in the film version of “Rock of Ages.”

During the early days of filming, Cruise confided to director Adam Shankman that if he could not sing the part, he wouldn’t be up for it.

Recalled Shankman, “There was a moment when we were looking at each other and Tom said, ‘Well, what if I can’t sell this? Because I won’t do it if it’s not me singing.’ With everything he does, from stunts to performing in front of an audience, it has to be him doing it.

“He believes his audience has come to expect that, and why bother doing it otherwise? But this is what he loves. He loves making movies and he wants to be really good, so he works harder than anybody at it.”

But Cruise went to great lengths to pull the rock star stunt. Instead of concentrating on cuts of his muscles, which he usually does in his action films, Cruise zeroed in on his vocal capacity. He would later realize that he can in fact sing very well. Yes, even that belting part, Cruise did well, all by himself, in “Rock of Ages.”

“From the moment he signed on, Tom started training his voice with an incredible vocal coach, Ron Anderson,” said Shankman.

“I remember the first time we heard him sing. He’s got this outrageous, four-octave range – turns out he has opera singers in his ancestry, so he’s probably genetically predisposed to sing, but no one’s ever asked him to before. I’m just the lucky recipient of this revelation, I suppose.”

The filmmaker confessed to feeling of relief when he found out Cruise could really pipe out songs because he had always wanted a Hollywood biggie to play Stacee Jaxx. “The joy at having discovered that he can sing was a huge relief.” Shankman admitted.

In the plot, “Stacee Jaxx is the rock god that every guy wants to be and that every woman wants to bed. The lead singer of Arsenal, Stacee is at a turning point in his career, and in his life. He’s about to go solo, and his final show with the band is at The Bourbon Room.

It’s a homecoming of sorts, as he played his first gig there back in the day. But fame and fortune may have come too easily to the front man who, after years of indulgence, has become boozed up and blasé to the point of bored, and less than reliable when it comes to showing up for his own shows.”

Shankman looked back at how his casting dream became a reality: “I was thinking to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we got one of the biggest movie stars in the world to play one of the biggest rock stars in the world?’ As luck would have it, I ran into Tom Cruise, told him I was directing this movie, that it was a musical, and that I was going to offer him this part. He said, ‘Are you serious?’ I said I was. Then I described Stacee to him and he laughed really hard. The next thing I knew, he was in, and I was making a musical with Tom Cruise.”

Luckily for the “Hairspray” director, Cruise exceeded expectations: “Tom is a rock god because he brings all of the star power that comes along with being Tom Cruise, and he’s found a character that audiences have never seen before.”

However, Cruise is not the only A-lister lending star power to the film, Alec Baldwin and Catherine Zeta-Jones are also on board as well as Russell Brand, Paul Giamati an Malin Akerman.

The New Line Cinema production distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures opens June 14.

source: mb.com.ph