A complaint.....

[Hemiola.]

Perhaps I am over-sensitive to this, but I have been noticing a trend lately, especially in a lot of TV shows.

Lighting. I have been noticing this in a lot of other shows: in the "police station" sections of "Joan of Arcadia" last night, for instance, the scenes were extremely dark. At its mildest, this practice badly "washes out" the color of a scene; at its worst, you can't see a damn thing that's going on.

I know where this started: way back when the first "Godfather" movie was made (I think it was in 1972), Francis Coppola stated that he wanted to rebel against the "Old Hollywood" style of film-making in which practically every object in a scene had its own light. He wanted interiors to look like interiors, not studio sets. In truth, he accomplished this in a very artistic way; he managed to evoke the feeling of the best of the old "film noir" movies (which, even though they were "dark", were still lighted well enough for you to see what was going on). Unfortunately, his many imitators were nowhere near as artistic as Coppola was, and many interior scenes just got darker and darker, practically to the point of invisibility.

At this point, I don't think it's an "artistic" device at all but, rather, simply a means to avoid paying for fully lighting a scene.

So, am I just an ancient fogey who mourns for the days when you could actually see a film or TV show that you were watching, or do others feel as I do?

[urnofosiris]

Oh goodie, a complain thread.

That too dark to see shit thing is annoying, but what annoys me even more is that totally obnoxious camera work a la NYPD Blue. The camera moves from left to right, up and down with jerky motions that I think is supposed to give it all a sense of realism, but instead all it does is give me motion sickness. If Dennis Franz´s big head and ass was not enough reason for me not to watch that show then that semi quasi "artistic" crap is.



Thanks, I feel better now.

[Munchkin]

Yep, "NYPD Blew" truly is a load of self-indulgent bull$#!+, from the bogus "street" slang ("it stirs me up", "lost time", "keep me posted", "reach out to him", "give him a tune-up") to the by-the-numbers writing where every single frickin' episode has to show five detectives work a single murder, question witnesses at the crime scene, take the witnesses to the station for more questioning, bring their boss up to speed, go out to ask another person more questions, go back and bully the first witness(s) for lying to them earlier, be told more info, consult the boss again, arrest suspect(s), question them, go to the D.A., and on and on. Blah, blah, f***ing blah.



Lately, the show has committed the unpardonable sin of misusing an awesome actress like Charlotte Ross (who I loved in Beggars & Choosers as Lori Volpone, the near-psychotic TV exec who I affectionately refer to as "Crazy Lori") and reduced her to a lifeless drone, let alone romantically pair her off with Dennis Franz's Andy Sipowicz . With the abomninably high mortality rate of Andy's closest friends & loved ones in the past, does anyone seriously expect Ross's character to survive to the end of the season after having just married Andy?



God, how I f***ing hate Stephen Bochco, that overrated hack.

_______



Dave C.

Edited by: Munchkin at: 2/9/04 1:22 pm

[Sheridan]

Well I have what maybe a UK complaint which is the fact that every bloody drama these days has to have some soapy subplot about the family/relationships of the main character. If I'm watching a cop show I want the focus to be the case, not the cops love lives, 'The Bill' has degenerated from a decent procedural into pure soap opera, and we have quite enough of that already.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[sam7777.]

every bloody drama these days has to have some soapy subplot about the family/relationships of the main character.

Sheridan: Unhappily, this phenomenon is not restricted to the UK. It's getting harder and hardfer for me to tell the difference between spaos and dramas these days. I don't mind some personal situtations but I also want a real story with it.

Hemiola: Agreed on the lighting. Even Trek has gotten pretty dark. Compare Enterprise to TNG for example. Still dark lighting can work well. Birds of Prey used darkness well.

[gspiggott]

I hate when flashy editing, odd camera angles are supposed to overcome flat predictable writing. NYPD Blue I'm looking at you.

[sam7777.]

gspiggot: NYPD Blue was no the only show doing that. Birds of Prey did it too.

A big beef of my is shows that decide to completely change to increase their ratings. The classic example was "Earth Final Conflict" that did a revamp almost every season. If the show isn't working the network and the poroduction team should be honest and just get rid of it. Not set it in a law firm to make it look like West Wing or recast half the characters to make them younger and prettier. Uggh! Sometimes it may work but I can't think of an example.

[J uk]

Quote:

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A big beef of my is shows that decide to completely change to increase their ratings. ... If the show isn't working the network and the poroduction team should be honest and just get rid of it. Not set it in a law firm to make it look like West Wing

---

That sounds very familiar...

[angelofinsanity]

why....are.....there.....so.....many.....freaking........reality.......shows......out.........there?!?!?!?!?!?!?!



i mean- don't get me wrong- i love survivor- it was THE ORIGINAL. but what is going on with all the other crap on TV? esp for Australia- there are what? a bloody gazillion 'home-improvement' reality shows where they pick a bunch of so-so looking ppl and get them to make a bloody house.

Australian Idol, Americon Idol, Pop Stars- whatever. the real musicians who deserves record deals are those ppl dashing it out in their garage and making up original tunes with their drumkits or the ppl who practices singing their own badly composed songs everyday in front of their mirror .

gah. when will reality t-v show's end!!!





STacy- off to read a book.....or a w/t-fic!!!

[sam7777]

Reality shows are cheap and can be done in a limite run to fill gaps in the network's schedule. Given that most of the networks are going to a year round schedule, I fear we will see more of them. Some are fun but most are just silly or dumb. Cable will keep taking home the emmy's if the networks keep putting on reality shows.



ETA: I think that eliminating live TV is an unnecessary reaction to the Janet Jackson thing. They really didn't need a 5 second delay on the Oscars for one.

_____________________

I see dead lesbian cliches

Edited by: sam7777  at: 3/1/04 9:28 am

[Sheridan]

Quote:

---

I think that eliminating live TV is an unnecessary reaction to the Janet Jackson thing. They really didn't need a 5 second delay on the Oscars for one.

---

Actually I supect the JJ thing was just a great excuse to bring in the delay after all the anti-war sentiment at last years oscars.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[sam7777]

Sheridan: Agreed. There was so little protest that you have to wonder if it was editted out.



Another pet peeve of mine is how many shows they keep making different editions of. How many Law & Orders and CSIs do we need? Personally, I've stopped being a fan of spin offs. I'd rather the primary show be done well and be allowed to end rather than take characters away to create another show. Sometimes it's better for a show to end than to just keep going on and on. The classic example is Star Trek. They just kept spinning it off and eroding their audience.



These days I'd rather see something new which is why I avoid stuff from creators whose work I didn't like in the past. It may be a new show but it's also likely to be more stuff that I didn't like in their past show. This is why I've become much more cognizant of who is working on the show as writers and producers so I can follow those I like and avoid those whose work I have found lacking. With the web, this information is easy to get.



To compete with cable's year round schedulle, the TV networks are talking about limited series of 13-15 eps ala Stephen King's "Kingdom" on ABC:

Changing channels



I think this would be a good idea especially for genre shows. SciFi in particulars relies on a high concept idea and I think that works better in a limited series where the beginning the middle and the end are plottted out rather than in an ongoing series like X-Files that just keeps going on till it rots. This is what I love about anme series like Serial Experiemnts lain and Boogie Pop Phantom, they tell one story well IMHO. I think limited series would give us more variety of shows.



All of the above is just my 2 cents.



ETA: I know alot of our overseas Kittens download shows to watch them. The MPAA has been trying to shut down BitTorrent Sites:



BitTorrent Servers Close After MPAA Suits



The BitTorrent Effect



BitTorrent will rise again

Quote:

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After BitTorrent servers were shut down under the legal pressure of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the peer-to-peer software is poised to come back under a new form.



This time, each client will be part of a decentralized file search system. The MPAA will have to go after individuals, which is costly, not efficient and unpopular.

---

Still this won't dsmay them. The RIAA has shown that though it is unpopular to sue you customers that there is no general outcry against it. A few sistes have caled for Boycotts but without a general out cry, nothing will change.



Personally, I think that this is cutting off their nose to spite their face. Downloading the eps doesn't prevent people from buying the DVD sets if they like the show and it provides good word of mouth for shows that gets them more sales in merchandise and buzz to get the shows on the air overseas. Unlike the Recording industry the MPAA is posting huge profits. I think they should eliminate the region encoding nonsense and allow world wide distribution. This would kill off alot of the "piracy" that consists of no more than people trying to see something that they can't see in their country.



Cetainly, Anime would be nothing in the states without fan subs that got the attention of audiences in the US and helped created the demand for Anime and Manga. Fan subs have never prevented me from buying the DVD when available. I came into Anime just as it was comig into the US and never dealt much with fan subs but without them, I don't believe the market would exist.

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

Edited by: sam7777  at: 1/12/05 12:08 pm

[Sheridan]

Quote:

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Still this won't dsmay them. The RIAA has shown that though it is unpopular to sue you customers that there is no general outcry against it. A few sistes have caled for Boycotts but without a general out cry, nothing will change.

---

Actually things do change. In the UK the BBC is planning to use P2P to allow free downloads of its shows for up to a week after they air, and some Torrent sites are simply acting as search engines, neither hosting nor listing files, just letting people search for torrents by keywords. If the RIAA and MPAA try nailing them then the big boys at Google. and Yahoo will have to get involved because if the notion takes root that a search engine is responsible for what people search for they will up their necks in lawsuits. All the legal attention does is generate the next evolution of the software, just look at the developments from Napster, through MIRC to Torrent, the next thing will be even harder to stop, in this case it took me all of five minutes to find a new download source.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[justin]

Quote:

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and some Torrent sites are simply acting as search engines, neither hosting nor listing files, just letting people search for torrents by keywords.

---

I don't think this is entirely acurate. Torrent sites do list the torrent files, which are pointers to the data which is downloaded.

Quote:

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. If the RIAA and MPAA try nailing them then the big boys at Google. and Yahoo will have to get involved because if the notion takes root that a search engine is responsible for what people search for they will up their necks in lawsuits.

---

That is if the cases go to court. The RIAA and MPAA generally go after people who can't afford to defend themselves in court, and who are forced to accept their extortionate setllement terms (generally the RIAA/MPAA's lawyer get's to shake them by their feet and see what money falls out of their pockets). This is exemplified by their tactic of going after 12 year olds.



As to going after search engines, while they probably won't go after Google or Yahoo, but have gone after people for creating search engines which list infringing material. Though, as noted above, generally just people who can't afford to defend themselves.

--

Homer Simpson: When will people learn, democracy just doesn't work.

[Sheridan]

Quote:

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As to going after search engines, while they probably won't go after Google or Yahoo, but have gone after people for creating search engines which list infringing material.

---

I think you rather missed the point, which is that Google and Yahoo can't afford the precedent to be set, not that they would be targeted, they have an interest in fighting the notion of making search engines liable for peoples content.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[justin]

Quote:

---

I think you rather missed the point,

---

You're right I did miss the point, but not in the way you mean,



You said

Quote:

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and some Torrent sites are simply acting as search engines, neither hosting nor listing files, just letting people search for torrents by keywords.

---

Most torret sites aren't acting as search engines. They do list and host torrent files, which are direct links to copyright infringing files. So going after those would not create a precedent that search engines are liable.



Even if a site just has an index of torrents hosted on other sites, the fact that it just indexes torrent files could make it possible to say that it's liable whereas general sites which just index anything (such as google and yahoo) aren't.

--

Homer Simpson: When will people learn, democracy just doesn't work.

[sam7777]

MPAA's new target

Quote:

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California based BayTSP are mercenaries to Hollywood, hired for their technical expertise. They track files which infringe on copyrights, wherever they may appear online. Using the gathered information, they provide their clients with the opportunity to send DMCA take down notices to anyone taking part in the infringement.



The information is also used by the RIAA and MPAA to sue individual file sharers.



The industry has so far been unable, or unwilling, to target all file sharers acquiring and sharing the latest files. With the chance of getting caught remaining low, the work of BayTSP has not acted as a deterrent.



However, new software from BayTSP, dubbed “FirstSource”, aims to end file sharer’s safety in numbers. The press release explains,



“FirstSource monitors for the first uploads of a client's intellectual property to the eDonkey and Bit Torrent networks. When the system spots a file name matching the client's content, it initiates a download to confirm that the file is what it appears to be. Once the content is validated, the system captures the IP (Internet Protocol) address and identifying information of other users downloading and sharing the pirated material.”



The software therefore acts to stop copyright infringement occurring on eDonkey and BitTorrent, rather than to simply stem the flow.



“The goal of the system is to make people think twice about being the first to upload a film or piece of software to those two networks. BayTSP's system already spots and collects information on people sharing. The main difference now is that it can spot the first handful of individuals,” Jim Graham, spokesperson for BayTSP, told Slyck.

---

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

Edited by: sam7777  at: 1/13/05 12:18 pm

[BFR from Paris]

Quote:

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BayTSP's system already spots and collects information on people sharing. The main difference now is that it can spot the first handful of individuals,” Jim Graham, spokesperson for BayTSP, told Slyck.

---

Whatever... It depresses me that people have nothing better to do

[Sheridan]

And of course all it will do is provoke another evolution of the P2P software, the RIAA and MPAA have been try to stop illiegal downloads for years, I haven't seen any sign of them succeeding to date.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[sam7777]

Though neither the RIAA nor MPAA can stop P2P, they can still hurt alot of defenseless folks by shaking them down for money as Justin said:

Quote:

---

The RIAA and MPAA generally go after people who can't afford to defend themselves in court, and who are forced to accept their extortionate setllement terms (generally the RIAA/MPAA's lawyer get's to shake them by their feet and see what money falls out of their pockets). This is exemplified by their tactic of going after 12 year olds.

---

Even if that's much less than 1% of P2P users, that's too much IMHO. People are denied due process when they can't take something to court because it is too expensive. You can read about the people hurt by these tactics here:

Downhill Battle Peer-to-Peer Legal Defense Fund

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

[urnofosiris]

I can udnerstand them wanting to stop the downloading of movies, but TV shows makes no sense. It is not as if my watching it online has any adverse affect on a show that I otherwise might never have even seen. It won´t stop foreign nations from purchasing a show if some people have already watched it. In fact it is free advertisement. I will tell anyone who wants to hear to watch shows like Desperate Housewives or Lost. I might never have gotten into them if I had not been able to download them. I am usually away on the day they are going to air DH here. What´s next? Suing people who tape an episode on their VCR.



If instead of spending all this time and money on creating their own bad publicity, they should invest in making popular shows available online. Just like you can watch it on TV, you should be able to watch it online. They can even put in those fucking annoying commercials of products that I will never ever buy simply because I hate commercials. Or they could make the episodes available for downloading against a reasonable fee or for free if they put in commercials there too. I would fast forward through them, but it would not make for an attractive home made DVD. If I like a show well enough I will by the original DVD, even if I already have the downloads.

[justin]

Quote:

---

I can udnerstand them wanting to stop the downloading of movies, but TV shows makes no sense. It is not as if my watching it online has any adverse affect on a show that I otherwise might never have even seen. It won´t stop foreign nations from purchasing a show if some people have already watched it.

---

This article explains why the MPAA are so worried about people downloading TV shows. Basically it seems to come down to control. This removes the TV networks ability to control distribution.



Also if people watch a show by downloading then they can watch the program without adverts, and it reduce the shows ratings.

Quote:

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What´s next? Suing people who tape an episode on their VCR.

---

Been there, done that. Well not quite. they actually went after the companies who made the VCRs



This is what Jack Valenti, president of the MPAA, said about VCRs

Quote:

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“When there are 20, 30, 40 million of these VCRs in the land, we will be invaded by millions of 'tapeworms,' eating away at the very heart and essence of the most precious asset the copyright owner has, his copyright.”

---

for some reason that quote brings to mind the major from Doctor Strangelove worrying about commies coming after our precious bodily fluids.

Quote:

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If instead of spending all this time and money on creating their own bad publicity, they should invest in making popular shows available online.

---

Well they could adapt to the new technologies, but it seems they prefer to use legislation to pretend that nothing has changed.



I'd recommend reading Free Culture - How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity

--

Homer Simpson: When will people learn, democracy just doesn't work.

Edited by: justin at: 1/14/05 1:50 pm

[sam7777]

The problem is that the MPAA like the RIAA wants to control the whole distribution and don't believe that they can do so with electronic distribution. They don't want to offer eps online. They want to sell the shows overseas to venues like Sky and get it paid for over and over and over again. I deally, they wan the initial commercial broadcast, syndication, DVD/Video money and overseas distribution contracts. Allowing downloads they belive would discourage folks like SKY to pay for the programs. It's all about getting a monopoly so that they can get people to pay over and over for the content. It's certainly not ablut giving the customer what they want.

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

[sam7777]

Some Twists in Music Piracy Lawsuits

Quote:

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The campaign has also produced worries, even from one federal judge, that wealthy record companies could trample some of the 3,935 people across the country who have been sued since the first such cases were filed in September 2003.



"I've never had a situation like this before, where there are powerful plaintiffs and powerful lawyers on one side and then a whole slew of ordinary folks on the other side," said U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner at a hearing in Boston. Dozens of such lawsuits have been filed in her court.

---

The court system is so expensive that even fines in the thousands of dollars are preferable. That is simply worng. Deep pockets should not determine what is legal.



The Erosion of the Legal System

Quote:

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According to an article in the New York Times, the jury trial is disappearing.



"On television and in the popular imagination, lawsuits and prosecutions end in trials, in open court before a jury. In reality, according to a new study, trials have become quite uncommon.



In 1962, the study says, 11.5 percent of all civil cases in federal court went to trial. By last year, that number had dropped to 1.8 percent. And even though there are five times as many lawsuits today, the raw number of civil trials has dropped, too. They peaked in 1985 at 12,529. Last year, 4,569 civil cases were tried in federal court.



"What's documented here," William G. Young, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Boston, said in a telephone interview, "is nothing less than the passing of the common law adversarial system that is uniquely American."



The percentage of federal criminal prosecutions resolved by trials also declined, to less than 5 percent last year from 15 percent in 1962. The number of prosecutions more than doubled in the last four decades, but the number of criminal trials fell, to 3,574 last year from 5,097 in 1962.



The study, based on data compiled by the federal court system, was prepared by Marc Galanter, who teaches law at the University of Wisconsin and the London School of Economics, for the American Bar Association.



"This is a cultural shift of enormous significance," said Arthur Miller, a law professor at Harvard.



Opinions vary on whether the shift is a positive one. Negotiated settlements may satisfy both sides in a way a win-or-lose trial cannot, and pretrial dismissals of cases by judges may avoid needless trials of frivolous claims. Both of these alternatives to trial are less cumbersome, less expensive and more efficient.



On the other hand, some studies suggest that individuals suing companies fare considerably better before juries than they do in settlements and before judges, meaning that a decline in the number of trials may hurt plaintiffs with valid claims.

---

ETA: NY Times has an article on Bittorrent and TV show:

Steal This Show

Quote:

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Millions of viewers are now watching illegal copies of television programs - even full seasons copied from popular DVD's - that are flitting about the Internet, thanks to other new programs that allow users to upload and download the large files quickly. And entrepreneurial souls are busily concocting even newer applications, including one that searches the Internet for illegal copies of any television shows you may desire and automatically downloads them to your computer.



These high-tech tricks address desires that have become standard in an age of instant media gratification: the desire to watch what you want, when and how you want it. And they're turning television - traditionally beamed into homes at the convenience of the broadcast and cable networks - into something more flexible, highly portable and commercial free.



Not surprisingly, the repercussions - particularly the rapidly growing number of shows available for the plucking online - terrify industry executives, who remember only too well what Napster and other file-sharing programs did to the music industry. They fret that if unchecked, rampant trading of files will threaten the riches of the relatively new and surprisingly lucrative television DVD business. It could endanger sales of television shows to international markets and into syndication. And it could further endanger what for the past 50 years has been television's economic linchpin: the 30-second commercial.



Hollywood has gotten a lot of headlines in recent months for fighting the online traffic in feature films. But behind the scenes, the studios and networks are just as focused on the proliferation of television shows being downloaded. Even more quietly, the conglomerates that produce the vast majority of television shows are scrambling to beat the downloaders by offering viewers a slew of attractive new gewgaws, from video-on-demand offerings that could let viewers order up an episode of "CSI" any time they like to a device that allows viewers who tune into the middle of a live TV broadcast to restart the program instantly.

---

This all sounds like a replay of the RIAA. They start about talking about new services then start suing ostensiably to get people to use them. But how is any of this going to allow folks out of the zone for a TV show to watch it?

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

Edited by: sam7777  at: 1/31/05 12:12 pm

[Sheridan]

What's especially annoying is that when these same companies shunt off parts of their operation to some distant corner of the globe because they can get what they need cheaper and quicker that's just 'good economic sense', after all why should they be expected to pay higher US rates for their labour and materials? That's just unreasonable. When I want to take advantage of the exchange rate to buy US DVD's cheaper than UK ones then I'm infringing their rights and undermining their business and they'll do their damndest to stop me. If they don't want to deliver a product for six months and I can get it tomorrow from another source then they want to the law changed to stop me doing it. Time the suits realized, 'globalization' cuts both ways.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[sam7777]

Another pet peeve of mine is the obsessive need for creators to go after spoiler sites. If folks want to be spoiled let them. If you don't want to be spoiled avoid them.



Media, fans increasingly spill TV secrets

Quote:

---

The secrets of Wisteria Lane are getting harder to keep.



For years, obsessive fans have used the Internet to trade inside info on their favorite shows. But the rise of reality TV and, this season, serialized dramas has sent producers scurrying into lockdown mode.



Just ask Josh Schwartz, creator and executive producer of The O.C., who wasn't pleased when TV Guide devoted the bulk of a cover article last fall to a detailed catalog of plot spoilers from the current season.



“It's annoying, because part of the pleasure you derive from a show like ours or Lost or Desperate Housewives that's twisty or turny is you want to be surprised by the twists and turns,” he says.



After word leaked online that a character on Housewives will be revealed as gay in this week's episode, New York's Daily News picked up the story, irritating producers who believe the show's continued success depends upon maintaining secrecy at all costs. As in other series, scripts are closely guarded, crewmembers sign confidentiality agreements, and visitors are shielded from a bulletin board that maps plot points.



“When Diane Sawyer shot an interview in the writers' office, she had to promise to not point the camera at our wall of plot,” says Housewives co-executive producer Kevin Murphy.



Others take extreme measures. Ahead of last spring's O.C. season finale, “we put out fake spoilers that the Cohen house burned and that Ryan was taken to a hospital,” Schwartz says. Chat room fans “went to it like moths to a flame.”



Murphy says Housewives, gearing up for “some really gigantic surprises,” may do the same. “We have the option of shooting something at the last minute. We may feed disinformation to actors. And we're also talking about shooting multiple versions of scenes,” as Sex and the City did last year.

---

The should be glad their fans are that interested. When the show is unpopular shit, no one wants spoilers. Also putting out fake spoilers is a huge mistake IMHO. This happened with W/T and was a big factor in alienating their fans. In any case, it's also useless because as a last resort people will get wild feed information before it airs or dish from folks who see the ep first. It's just another was that they are trying to control our entertainment.

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

[urnofosiris]

Spoilers are free publicity, they should stop whining already. Besides, I seriously doubt most of the people who watch Desperate Housewives or any other show for that matter, would not bother to go online to look for spoilers. I love Desperate Housewives, but I am not interested in being spoiled, yet if I wanted to be, who cares? What the hell does it matter. As soon as an episode airs, the entire rest of world that sees it at a later date can spoil themselves, unless they want to forbid someone who gets to see it first talking about the episode as well.

[sam7777]

I can't help thinking that all this concern about hiding "spoilers" is often a means to hiding a lame plot/bad writing. It certainly was with W/T. If the story is good what is there to hide?

[Sheridan]

The whole anti spoiler thing is pretty pathetic given the previous discussion on this thread. You can show a programme in different places at different and you will have spoilers(not to mention downlods), or you can check a calendar, realise this is the 21st Century, and let everyone see it the same time and keep your surprises.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the person you l-love

Willow: I am

[sam7777]

The MPAA is at it again:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5705142.html

Continuing its war on Internet file-swapping sites, the Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday that it has filed lawsuits against a half-dozen hubs for TV show trading.

The trade association said that piracy of TV programming is growing quickly online, and that shows are as important to protect as big-budget films. This is the first legal action from the group that has focused most heavily on TV content.

"Every television series depends on other markets (such as) syndication and international sales to earn back the enormous investment required to produce the comedies and dramas we all enjoy," MPAA Chief Executive Officer Dan Glickman said in a statement. "Those markets are substantially hurt when that content is stolen."

The latest round of suits retains a focus on BitTorrent technology, which has been widely used online to distribute movies and films.

The suits are focused on the sites that serve as traffic directors for BitTorrent swaps, rather than on individual computer users uploading and downloading content. The MPAA also has sued individuals, but has not said how many people have been targeted.

The six sites sued Thursday include ShunTV, Zonatracker, Btefnet, Scifi-Classics, CDDVDHeaven and Bragginrights.

I doubt that they can put the genie back in the bottle.