'Star Wars' Charts Course in Digital Video. Lucasfilm produced "Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones" and 20th Century Fox distributed it. But Sony Electronics would like some credit, too, for the digital cameras used to shoot the movie. By Andrew Zipern. [New York Times: Movies]

Quiet, Unassuming: Like Their Movies. The Sprecher sisters have won praise for two independent films. But a career in film? It's more like an expensive hobby. By Margy Rochlin. [New York Times: Arts]

An Elite of Equals in Cannes, at Least at First. On paper, the Cannes Film Festival beginning on May 15 looks like one of the strongest lineups in years, a deft balance of regions, styles and sensibilities. By Dave Kehr. [New York Times: Movies]

[From John Robb's Radio Weblog comes this rant:]

«Fear and greed are both motivating the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America, Hollywood's lobbyist in Washington]. The fear they feel is something we have heard a lot about. Not much has been said about the greed driving this.

«One of the major reasons that the BPDG is so hot to lock down content is Interactive HDTV [High-definition television] (a revision of the ITV fantasies of 1993-94). It's not about protecting broadcast content, although enabling a means to stop PVRs [Programmable video recorders, e.g., TiVO or ReplayTV ] from skipping commercials will be a byproduct. The dream of iHDTV is to get a major cut of the services revenue associated with distributing first run movies on demand. This is new revenue to the movie industry.

«I can tell you that watching a DVD movie with progressive scan on a 42" HDTV plasma screen, with surround sound, is an awesome experience. It rivals going to the theater. It is especially attractive now that I have kids and don't get out to see movies as much as I used to. I am now totally hooked on Netflix as a result.

«The equipment I am using is getting less expensive daily. It will soon be available for less than $1k. Additionally, bandwidth to the home is there in many cases. Telcos have installed reams of fiber to the local loop. There just isn't a market that will pay to light it up. In their minds, the iHDTV market's infrastructure is now almost in place and they didn't even have to pay to build it (as proposed in 1993-94). Now that it is almost here, they want to use it to generate new revenue, but are caught between fear and greed.» [Source: John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Reciting 'fear' and 'greed' and 'MPAA' in the same sentence isn't analysis; at most, it is prayer or incantation. This is a kind of 'movie fan letter'.

This is not different from a junkie complaining about the high price of narcotics, or the difficulty in obtaining works (that's junkie talk for the needles, spoons, candles and tournequets for injection). Sure, some of the things he says may be true; but wouldn't it be better to get off the junk?

In my opinion, this kind of carping makes really penetrating analysis that much more difficult, because it confuses issues, and most of all because it lets the terms of debate be defined by the subject of the debate.

The Distinguished Career of Old What's-His-Name. Good at many things but a star at none, Buck Henry is used to going unnoticed. By Neil Genzlinger. [New York Times: Arts]

The New York Times puts a positive spin on nepotism

In the Name of the Father. For the children of Francis Ford Coppola, filmmaking is a family affair. By Frank Bruni. [New York Times: Arts]

Online radio heard in Congress. Webcasters and the recording industry go head-to-head at a Senate hearing over a proposed royalty rate for online radio. [CNET News.com] via [The All Electric Media Weblog]

Listening in the past strangles the future. The problem with this silly story is the presumption that playing old, recorded music is a good thing. It is not. Every time an old favorite is played, some new music is not played.

Why not encourage new music by, say, making the royalties for old stuff prohibitively high? Make room for new voices.

The DMCA Is the Toast of D.C.. Despite broad opposition to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it's major content-holders who have Washington's ear, and they think the law is just swell.

Hollywood's political message to consumers: your vote means nothing

To Hollywood, the DMCA is just the first step: It only made most types of 'circumvention' illegal. Now movie studios want to require copy-protection technology in most software and hardware.

A bill, the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, introduced in March by Senate Commerce chairman Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina) seeks to compel the computer industry to adopt software and hardware standards aimed at reducing illicit copying.

[Privacy Digest] via [The All Electric Media Weblog]