Posted by
Martyn Drake – June 11, 2010
I’ve long since moaned (“If it’s on the Internet It Must Be Free”) about how badly the Daily Mail sources photographs and then wrongly attributes copyright to it’s photos on the Mail Online service.
I’ve just had these two wonderful blog posts (from the same blog) brought to my attention. The first post reveals that the Daily Mail took pictures from Twitpic and used it in one of their articles without permission from the copyright holder (i.e. the photographer). The second post details what happened when the Group Managing Editor gets in touch to “apologise”.
I wouldn’t mind so much, but given the number of times I’ve seen them attribute copyright wrongly and use pictures from Twitpic and other services (which retain the original copyright of the photographer), it’s not so much an incident that’s happened by accident or carelessness, but downright arrogance.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – June 8, 2010
Was reading the Daily Mail (to find out which people they hate today) and came across this article about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Voldermort’s nose job very likely provided by MPC). Very amused to find that the DM had embedded a YouTube video of the HP:DH trailer which recently aired on MTV, only for Viacom (MTV’s owners), to have submitted a take-down request and the video removed.
Viacom demanding YouTube remove a video for a film trailer of a film that Viacom doesn’t even have any rights to? I’m sure Warner Bros. will be overjoyed with that. I know the trailer comes from an MTV program but even so, this demonstrates how mad the film industry has gone.
I always thought that film companies and music labels WANTED to share promotional items with people. It is, after all, a way of getting people interested in buying or paying to watch whatever the hell it is they’re trying to promote. Viacom has done Warners a huge disfavour, and I hope Warners will appropriately bitchslap Viacom because of it.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – May 15, 2010
Back in the day when I was working in the film & TV industry, I learned that engineers working in this industry was viewed as a “necessary evil”. That’s good, because I felt that film studios and their management were a “necessary evil” as well, since they paid my employers who in turn, paid me.
The ultimate irony was that we had to have multi-region DVD players (I’m assuming they had to either be chipped or had to use manufacturer’s remote control codes to enable multi-region – at the very worst we’ve had to import the players from abroad) to play content from people we were being paid by to do work for. When artists working on big budget Hollywood financed productions required to watch reference material on DVD (usually either other films, but sometimes expensive stock footage on DVD), we couldn’t allow them to play commercial DVDs on their Linux workstations because no official and legal CSS playback library was available. They had to play them on a small portable DVD player (usually the artist’s own), or go into a producer’s office and watch it there on the chipped/multi-region DVD player. There was, of course, a representative from the film studio whenever a screening was put on, to ensure that nobody ever went into the screening theatre with possible recording equipment. Contradiction city! They make it hard for us to do our work, and then eye us suspiciously when we want to see what we’ve done for them!
But then again, the film industry IS one big contradiction, and it’s high time it sorts itself out once and for all. And this is why I love this article from Peter Serafinowicz – actor writer, producer, director – who explains why he sources his films and books the way he does. The fact he has to download a torrent of a movie he is in to be able to include footage in his own showreel, and that his work for a promo video is region restricted, prove that the entertainment industry keeps both it’s fingers in the ears and is shouting, “la la la la la la – I can’t hear you!”. If it’s THIS difficult for people at his level getting them to co-operate with them, the consumer has no chance whatsoever for a reasonable fair use policy.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – April 25, 2010
Went to see The Joneses at Ambassadors Cinema in Woking on Saturday, and am now convinced that it’s time to perhaps banning punters from bringing in any form of mobile phone into the cinema. Why? There are far too many people checking or using their phones during the film. You see this little window of light pop up at the corner of your eye, distracting you from the film. And the phone owner will not put it away. Oh no.
The majority of the phone bandits are teenagers, but to be fair, teenagers with an attention span of a gnat. If they’re not playing with their phones, they’re talking (and not quietly either) to their friends. Watching Dear John the other weekend was unbearable at times due to thoughtless, ill-mannered social fuckwits from whom I wonder why they ever bothered to go to the cinema in the first place. It really spoils the experience.
I am still very tempted to call in the cinema staff and tell them that somebody is attempting to take pictures of the screen or are videoing it. That would be evil, of course, and I wouldn’t do it unless I really DID suspect somebody was really being that stupid, but given that virtually every mobile phone has decent storage and not bad cameras on them, this is certainly quite plausible.
And this would be a shame because I’m sure that the majority of people carrying a mobile phone into the cinema are sensible enough to (a) not to use it or (b) switch it off completely. I leave my phone at home. I’ve lived half my life without needing a mobile phone to be on my person 24/7, so I can leave it behind for a couple of hours.
On a somewhat related note, what the heck is going on at the Ambassadors with their loyalty card scheme? For the second week running they’ve had no new loyalty cards. As a consequence we’ve had one card stamped twice in one week, but stamped only once this week. As it is it’s difficult to trade in the cards due to the restrictions placed on when they can be used. Not good.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – April 9, 2010
While Cameron & co. have, generally, a reasonable set of policies, they are nonetheless two-faced scumbuckets, at least when it comes to the creative industry. I recently wrote to my local Conservative MP with regards to the Digital Economy Bill.
Mr. Mallins mentions that although the Conservatives are willing to implement technical measures to against the most extreme offenders (as to how they’ll gauge that, I don’t know), they would only use it as a last resort. I am then assured that this colleague, Jeremy Hunt (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport), who is the MP for West Surrey, is following the bill closely and will continue to press the Government for a proper debate and full scrutiny of the proposals.
So what does Hunt do? He is in favour for the DEB and votes it in. He is one of the four Conservatives to do so.
Posted by
Martyn Drake – March 22, 2010
What have all of the above have in common? It’s all bullshit. Especially the wardrobe bit.
Organisations such as FACT, the Creative Coalition Campaign, the BPI, and others are currently spewing a load of made-up figures in order to put the frighteners into MPs to ensure that the Digital Economy Bill is passed through parliament. Made-up figures I hear you cry? Well, apparently so. Ben Goldacre has been doing a bit of digging as to how the creative industry has come to these figures. It’s compelling reading. Also see this blog post from Mo regarding these figures. Again, most definitely worth a read.
I’ve attempted to ask FACT and the Creative Coalition Campaign as to why they’re standing behind these figures and how they themselves believe in them, I’ve been met with stony silence. Not a word. Nothing. I had some respect for FACT at one point, but if they’re standing behind this report, I’ve just lost some of that respect. Given I earnt pretty well in the six years in the creative/film industry myself and therefore have my own interest in ensuring that piracy is thwarted, even *I* can’t see why these organisations have resulted to spewing such utter bollocks.
If this article from Google/YouTube is to be believed, Viacom have been deliberately attempting to falsify evidence in order to successfully prosecute Google/YouTube over copyright infringement. These tactics only makes the consumer mistrust big media companies, makes them look evil, does their own cause no good, and does nobody any favours whatsoever.
I emailed my local MP regarding the Digital Economy Bill, and this is what was said in their reply (for those that can’t read the squishy version below):
