Canadian Company Fights for Right to Webcast TV Programming

JumpTV.com, a Canadian webcaster that wants to retransmit television programming over the Internet, doesn't understand why its plan is making people so jumpy. The dot-com is the focus of intense controversy in the television world because of its plans to pick up network programming and webcast it over the Internet.

Well let's see if AOL/TimeWarner has an objection. Because they own Turner Broadcasting, which was started by Ted Turner. And does anyone know how they made their money? Bueller? Anyone?

Okay, here's how. Turner took TV signals and piped them, using Satellite, to other locations and charged people for doing so. This is why many of us receive WGN from Chicago. And this is why, for example, people in remote island villages in Belize (i.e. Ambergris Caye) became Cubs fans.

Anyway, I digress. All of this retransmission made Turner money, and it made the networks (whose signals he was taking and not paying for) mad. They asserted copyright control and all that, and there were lawsuits etc. (see Lessig article involving similar issue). But, the 1974 Teleprompter case held that the cable companies could do this, and recognized that advertising dollars are based on size of the viewing audience. More people means more dollars. So, why doesn't that principle apply here? Short answer: loophole closed by legislation (i.e. '404 Page Not Found'). Any other questions? [Ernie the Attorney]

High-Definition Television (HDTV) Internet comes to Hawaii.... [The All Electric Media Weblog]

Nickolodeon is making a big-budget feature-film adaptation of the pop-Gothic "Series of Unfortunate Events" kids' books. I love these books -- they're wickedly funny, nasty and smart. Best of all, Lemony Snicket, the pseudonymous author, is writing the screenplay. [Boing Boing Blog]

Bertelsmann is forced to buy Zomba.

"It's a great time to get out," said music veteran Irving Azoff, who co-manages the Backstreet Boys. "The record business as we know it has undergone radical changes."

Music-industry sales have been in a slump. In 2001, total U.S. album sales dropped for the first time in at least a decade. This year is looking no better. Since the beginning of 2002, total music sales in the U.S. have fallen 12.1% from a year earlier, according to SoundScan, an industry tracking firm.

[The Wall Street Journal] [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Webcasters Demand TV Rights. JumpTV.com claims Canadian law allows it to webcast network TV signals. But the broadcasters' lobbying group says the government shouldn't let it happen. Charles Mandel reports from Canada. [Wired News] [The All Electric Media Weblog]

Pied Guitarist of Cuba Takes Joy on the Road. Although Karim Dridi's uplifting film has the look and sound of a documentary, it's really a loosely constructed musical road movie. By Stephen Holden. [New York Times: International]

A Western Moved East, to the Brooklyn Frontier. Joe Maggio's video feature is set in a halfway house in a dilapidated section of Brooklyn, though its screenplay could just as well have taken place in Tombstone, Ariz. By Dave Kehr. [New York Times: Movies]

Beware of Hitchhikers à la Polanski, O.K.?. Like Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water, the film that inspired it, Kaaterskill Falls is a journey into the disintegration of marriage. By Lawrence Van Gelder. [New York Times: Movies]

Here's an LA Times article about Hentai ('pervert') anime.

The star is typically a perky, doe-eyed female in a high school uniform. Her co-stars range from slobbering businessmen and sadomasochistic school officials to hormonal extraterrestrials. When the two groups meet, their escapades are often a mix of graphic violence, weird sex and plot lines that can only be described as over the top.

[Boing Boing Blog