Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Hollywood movie studios on Tuesday launched new legal action against operators of sites that help connect people to movies on two major peer-to-peer filesharing networks.

In the United States, the Motion Picture Association of America, the main lobbying arm of American film studios, filed civil lawsuits against operators of BitTorrent tracker sites, which point to locations where downloadable files can be found. In Europe, legal action in partnership with international law enforcement are expected against parties responsible for the hosting of servers in the eDonkey network.
Both BitTorrent and eDonkey allow millions to share copies of movies, music, software and games. Because of its efficiency in helping users handle very large files -- such as digital copies of feature-length films -- BitTorrent has attracted the enmity of Hollywood.

The MPAA has filed previous suits against individual downloaders. Its actions come just days after the Supreme Court agreed to take up the landmark MGM v. Grokster filesharing case.

In August, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that peer-to-peer companies cannot be held responsible for intellectual property infringement that may take place on their networks, because the technologies can be also used for legitimate, non-infringing purposes.

After urgent requests from the MPAA, the Recording Industry Association of America and a class of 27,0000 songwriters and musicians, the high court agreed last week to decide the case on appeal.

For now, P2P services such as Grokster, BitTorrent and eDonkey are not illegal. But so-called "indexing servers" that help users download copyrighted content are. In its original architecture, the Napster network used a centralized database to keep track of which file sharer had which file. Other decentralized nets such as Grokster do not have a central repository -- and this distinction became a key reason why the courts banned Napster while permitting Grokster and Streamcast to continue.

The BitTorrent tracker sites do not hold content themselves, but serve as a dynamically generated library of urls that show users where portions of files are located within the constellation of participating nodes. They help to connect users who want a file with other users who have that file on their hard drive.

Regardless of whether the tracker sites host content or not, people close to the matter say the MPAA is likely to argue that the people who host such sites are aware that the servers make acts of copyright infringement possible, and should therefore be held liable.

While this new round of legal attack would represent the first time the MPAA has attempted to sue parties responsible for hosting trackers, both BitTorrent and eDonkey have been in the entertainment trade group's sights for some time. As the popularity of both services boomed in recent months, the MPAA has escalated its attempts to compel ISPs to take action against action within their domain.

MPAA representatives declined to comment in advance of Tuesday's press conference
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According to Hollywood Reporter, Howl's Moving Castle has earned US$79.6 million (¥8.4 billion approx.) in the 23 days since it was released theatrically in Japan. Comparatively, Spirited Away earned ¥10 billion in the first 25 days of its release.

This Week Last Week Title Country Week#
1 1 Howl's Moving Castle Japan 4
2 2 The Incredibles USA 2
3 N/A Windstruck Korea 1
4 4 Ima Aini Yukimasu Japan 7
5 3 Godzilla Final Wars Japan 2
6 5 The Polar Express USA 3
7 N/A Lady Joker Japan 1
8 6 Everybody Has Secrets Japan 3
9 7 Collateral USA 7
10 8 Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow USA 3
'Incredibles' races past $150 mil overseas




LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As a batch of new entries sought to establish beachheads at the foreign box office last weekend, "The Incredibles," "The Polar Express" and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" dominated ticket sales.
"The Incredibles" held the lead for a third weekend in a row, with a massive $32.1 million from 37 countries. "The Polar Express" picked up $16.5 million, while the "Bridget Jones" sequel enjoyed a $13.4 million weekend.

Among the newcomers displaying varying degrees of acceptance in limited early dates were North American champ "Ocean's Twelve," which picked up $4.6 million from five markets; "Blade: Trinity," which entered the United Kingdom at the top with a five-day bow of $5.1 million, and scored $7.5 million from four countries; "The Phantom of the Opera," which kicked off in the U.K. at No. 4 with a three-day take of $2.3 million, and "Closer," which grabbed the No. 3 notch in Italy with an agreeable $1.6 million.

The overseas haul of "Incredibles" shot up to $151.9 million after No. 1 bows in Germany ($5.8 million) and Brazil ($1.7 million). In Japan, "Incredibles' held the No. 2 spot behind local blockbuster "Howl's Moving Castle," which has recorded $79.6 million in four weeks. "Incredibles"' second weekend ($4.8 million) in Japan was off only 19%, for a local total of $14.8 million. Three weekends in the United Kingdom have delivered $36.6 million, while France has chipped in $22 million over the same period. Italy has contributed $16.8 million and Spain $16.5 million.

"The Polar Express" is picking up steam abroad with sales-to-date of $47.2 million from 45 countries. The animated film with a Tom Hanks voice-over arrived in the United Kingdom at No. 3 with a solid $4.4 million.

There was no stopping "Bridget Jones," which took the lead in France with a $5.3 million bow. The total for the romantic comedy stands at $130.1 million, considerably better than North America's $38.1 million.

After a $10.9 million weekend from 13 markets, "National Treasure's" loot advanced to $34.1 million, with No. 1 openings in Italy ($4.9 million), Spain ($2.1 million), Singapore ($450,000) and Portugal ($395,000).

Domestic dud "Alexander" made off with an estimated $5.1 million (foreign total: $24.7 million) from 22 countries before winding up this year's assault in Germany on Dec. 23 and recharging next year in France on Jan. 5.

"Ocean's Twelve" took a 46% share of Australia's top 10 take as it opened at No. 1 with $3.5 million.

Besides its No. 4 opening in the United Kingdom, "Phantom of the Opera" orchestrated a No. 1 bow in South Korea, with an estimated $2.7 million. It opens in North America on Dec. 22.
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ADV Films has released detals regarding their upcoming release of Gantz via a print solicitation sent to retailers. They have confirmed that they will be releaseing the un-edited version (Gantz was edited to remove objectionable content from the Japanese TV release). They've also confirmed the 50 minute / 2-episode running time reported earlier this month. Gantz will be released on 13 2-episode DVDs, the first one is listed with a $17.98 SRP
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Hayao Miyazaki has won a special jury prize for his comlete body of work (all his works) at the world's biggest fantisy film festival, the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia, which ended on Friday.

Additionally, Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle won the Audience Award for Best film.

Katsuihiro Otomo's Steamboy won the Gertie Award for the Best Animation Film.

The full list of award winners can be read http://www.cinemasitges.com/eng/docs/PALMARES04eng.doc
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