AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Apple plan is a Blockbuster - The Hollywood Reporter
Steve Jobs’ eagerly anticipated Macworld keynote lived up to the hype Tuesday as the Apple co-founder, chairman and CEO announced that movies from every major studio would now be available for rental on iTunes.
During his annual speech in San Francisco, Jobs revealed that his company had reached [...]

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At a time when the business model of the Hollywood studio seems to be making as many headlines as the movies they distribute, here’s a review of a new book that examines the way it used to be, the Star Machine, by former AFI Trustee Jeanine Basinger

“Movie stardom,” writes Jeanine Basinger very close to the [...]

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Studios Unveil DVD Copying Schemes; Aim To Provide Piracy Alternative — paid content
The good news: Movie studios recognize that strict DRM on DVDs helps make piracy and illegal downloading an attractive route for consumers so various schemes are now being rolled out to let users copy their DVDs onto multiple devices, including PCs and handheld [...]

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Back Channels Drive New Talks for Writers - The Wall Street Journal
The planned post-Thanksgiving resumption of contract talks between striking screenwriters and Hollywood studios offers a moment of hope in what has been a nasty work stoppage. But people in the industry caution that the prospects of quickly making a deal, and returning the entertainment [...]

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Time to rewrite their future - LA Times
Why don’t striking writers create original online programming that could bolster their cause and show the medium’s true potential?
LAST week in a CBS Studios picket line, one TV writer referred to the current WGA work stoppage as “the first Internet strike.” And there may be something to that.
Certainly [...]

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