Andrew Ainsworth, a prop designer who worked on the original 1977 Star Wars film designing props for the George Lucas production has been found not guilty for selling his own line of Star Wars replicas online and from his London store by the British High Court. The court stated that Ainsworth didn’t violate any British copyright laws.

However, the designer isn’t totally off the hook. The court did find that he and his studio, called Shepperton Design Studios, did violate U.S. intellectual property rights law. This means that although Ainsworth can sell his Star Wars creations anywhere in the U.K., he has been forbidden to do so within the boundaries of the United States or any of its protectorates.

Ainsworth has held firm on his statement that all his props are “made from the original molds” he used when he worked for Lucas on the film and are his personal property.

The case now goes up for appeal this coming October from either party.

Just as renowned, award-winnding director Steven Spielberg is looking to leave his haunts at Paramount Pictures the studio lands a new big fish for its line-up a star helmers. Brett Ratner, will be packing up his Rat Entertainment shingle and leaving the troubled New Line for new gigs with Paramount.

While very few director’s resumes will ever be as impressive as Spielberg’s, Ratner’s list of work is nothing to sneeze at. He can take credit for helming all three “Rush Hour” flicks, as well as “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Red Dragon” and the Nicolas Cage film “Family Man.” He has also been a force to be reckoned with on television having produced and directed several episodes of the Fox hit series “Prison Break” and “Women’s Murder Club.”

Some of his future projects include “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” “Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra,” “Beverly Hills Cop 4,” “Harbinger” and the upcoming new television crime drama “Blue Blood.”

The merger between Sirius and XM Satellite Radio is now complete after the final FCC hurtles were successfully jumped.

The new company, now called Sirius XM Radio, can boast of over 18 million subscribers and is now poised to compete directly against terrestrial radio and digital audio players such as iPod and Zune.

This joining of the two companies is expected to garner them about $300 million in profits and save nearly $400 million in debt by the end of 2009.

Sirius XM Radio will showcase a roster of exclusive programming, ranging from channels dedicated to personalities such as Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart, to specialty channels like Slice of SciFi, and will also include a lineup that includes professional sports broadcasts, news and music.

The new company’s biggest challenge will be the same one they faced as separate entities — how to interest new subscribers to join up.

For those currently subscribed to either XM or Sirius, the management at Sirius XM Radio ensure their customers that their radios will continue to work and every subscriber still has the option of maintaining their current service package.

A new report issued by CBS Interactive shows that live-streaming full-length television shows doesn’t negatively impact broadcast ratings reports the Hollywood Reporter. 

The reports says more than half of the network’s online audience (46%) primarily views their favorite shows online, and most say that the wide availability of these shows across the Internet does not impact their TV viewing. In fact, 35% of the nearly 50,000 streamers surveyed by researcher Magid Media Labs on behalf of CBS reported that they are more likely to view shows on the network as a result of having been exposed to content on the Web.

CBS has been aggressive in both offering full-length episodes of its shows on its site and also in syndicating these shows all over the Internet as part of the CBS Audience Network, which includes everything from Yahoo to Bebo.

“These findings confirm what we’ve believed all along,” said David Botkin, senior vp, research & audience analytics, CBS Interactive. “Online viewing is complementary to broadcast viewing, so making our programming more accessible to people drives awareness, interest and ratings both online and on-air.”

Many people have been wondering why the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) refused to accept the new contract offered by producers, especially after the deal was sweetened with an additional incentive number in the millions of dollars ($250 million). SAG leadership and its 120,000 members have been mum on the issue until now.

On Thursday (July 17) those same members gave the union’s executive director, Doug Allen, permission to make their case publically known so that their side of the issue could be understood. In a letter from Allen each reason for rejecting the new contract was laid out in specific terms.

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While the ruling two weeks ago from Judge Louis L. Stanton of the U.S. District Court in New York allows Viacom access to user ID’s and internet IP addresses, the media giant has opted to allow Google-owned YouTube to mask the online viewing history of the material downloaded from that video site.

This is considered a major victory for those who advocate privacy on the internet as paramount. However, Google still has to find a way to better protect that material in the future.

All this flap was brought on by a $1 billion (USD) lawsuit Viacom brought against YouTube for what it alleges to be copyright infringement taking place from the site’s online activity.

“We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed off their original demand for all users’ viewing histories, and we will not be providing that information,” stated a spokesperson for Netco, a large internet privacy advocacy group. “In addition, Viacom and the plaintiffs had originally demanded access to users’ private videos, our search technology and our video identification technology,” it continued. “Our lawyers strongly opposed each of those demands, and the court sided with us.”

Netco and other privacy watchdog organizations have asked Google and YouTube on more than one occassion to find some way to never retain that kind of data in the first place.

Viacom, for its part, told the Daily Variety that it was pleased that Google would comply with the court’s directive to provide YouTube usage data, which it says “will highlight the way YouTube has used copyrighted material to build its business.”

The members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) soundly rejected the “final deal” being offered by the major Hollywood film and television studios leaving the entire industry seated on needles and pins wondering what will happen next.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) said on Wednesday that its final offer to the more than 120,000 members of the Guild, which they sprinkled with an additional $10 million incentive, would have to be ratified by August 15. A SAG delegation took all night Wednesday and most of Thursday to review and go over the producer’s proposal with its members and came back late on Thursday with a resounding — No Thank You!

“The refusal of SAG’s Hollywood leadership to accept this offer is the latest in a series of actions by SAG leaders that, in our opinion, puts labor peace at risk,” the producers alliance said.

No official word has come from SAG after its meeting on Thursday night.

The Alliance of Motion Pictures & Television Producers (AMPTP) have put a little extra sugar on their “final offer” to the actors to try and get the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) to accept a new contract with them.

That sugar is a $10 million sweetener retroactive to July 1 if, and only if, the union membership agrees to ratify the deal by midnight August 15, 2008.

SAG’s is said to be getting itself ready to respond today to this newest addition to the final plan.

A spokesperson for the AMPTP said late today that “The producers have included this traditional incentive in the final offer in order to get everyone back to work and end the de facto strike.”

SAG had no official statement and would only indicate that they will look it over and respond directly to the producers first, and not the press.

An overwhelming majority (62%) of the 70,000 members of the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA) have ratified that union’s contract deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) knocking back the larger actor’s union, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), on its heels.

AFTRA had signaled early on in their negotiations with the producers that they were open to ensuring a contract would be possible between the two parties. SAG representatives have fought against the ratification almost from the beginning. AFTRA members cited the fact that the current economy isn’t conducive for a strike by its members and feel that for its actors to walk-out at this time would be too devastating, not only for them, but to the entertainment industry overall. The terms in this new AFTRA deal practically mirror those in the contracts signed by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA). This now puts real pressure on SAG to sit down and negotiate and consider the majors’ final offer to SAG given them last week.

Ballots went out to all 70,000 AFTRA members, including 44,000 SAG members who belong to both unions. Alec Baldwin, Sally Field, Tom Hanks and Susan Sarandon backed the AFTRA deal while Viggo Mortensen, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte and Martin Sheen endorsed SAG’s anti-AFTRA stance, according to Variety.

With this new development the negotiators for the AMPTP said that it has a new meeting with SAG leadership set and stated, “The Producers remain hopeful that SAG will accept our final offer.”

After a new U.S. court ruling, Google must now release information on the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any kind of video on YouTube. While this ruling was issued in a U.S. court, it is believed it will be enforced worldwide.

The ruling was propagated by Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit against the Google owned site for what Viacom alleges to be copyright infringement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has called the ruling a “set-back to privacy rights”.

Under the court’s direction the YouTube viewing log must be handed over to Viacom, however, the company is required to not make log-in user ID’s, the computer’s IP address or the video clip information available for general public consumption, however, the information could end up being used in the court room in Viacom’s case against Google.

(Read more…)

The clock ticked down to midnight and no last minute, save-the-day deal was forthcoming. In fact, The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) says it has made its final offer to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and there will be nothing new coming any time soon from the producers.

SAG says that the $250 million in additional compensation to the actors in the union simply doesn’t go far enough and that the producers continue to wave off the real issue, which is a meaningful new media compensation package.

Even though today’s last minute negotiations bore no fruit, the actors said through their union reps that they will continue to work under the old existing contract, but wouldn’t indicate just how long they would be willing to do so without a call to strike at some point in the future if things remain deadlocked.

A new meeting has been set for Wednesday, July 2, so that AMPTP reps can explain their $250 million offer in clearer detail, but don’t expect anything new from them to be placed on the table. It will be up to SAG to outright reject the producers’ offer or find a work-a-round solution, or worst-case-scenario — call for a full work stoppage.

For SAG’s part they have stated that before any official statement can come from them a full review of the AMPTP’s 43-page offer must be completed.

The actors contract with the AMPTP runs out at midnight tonight and there is no light at the end of this tunnel. The two parties are still very far apart on key issues, especially those dealing with new media compensation.

The only question that remains is will this be the final act of a 3-act play? Act 1 - WGA equaled a strike that lasted for four months and nearly crippled the industry. Act 2 - the DGA was able to work out a compromise that prevented a directors walk-out. This third act, if it concludes with a strike could, in reality, destroy Hollywood as the centerpiece of worldwide entertainment.

How likely is a strike? Not much, if you listen to the president of the Screen Actors Guild.

“We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of Screen Actors Guild,” Union President Alan Rosenberg said in a statement Sunday. “Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction.”

Others, however, aren’t so sure and are bracing for what could be another long walk-out.

“If you’re a below-the-line worker, your blood is probably running cold, because they’re the ones that took the biggest hit from the writers strike,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.

“Too many people would be put out of work,” actress Alexandra Leighton (”Swingtown”) said. “It’s just not worth it. The economy is already iffy, and it would just crush the local economy.”

The other day we reported how some pretty big names and important people in the entertainment industry were getting behind AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), the smaller actor’s union, and showing support for the organization’s decision to accept a proposal from the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers) for a new contract. Some of those actors were heavy hitters like Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, James Cromwell and at least 600 others.

Not to be outdone, SAG (Screen Actors Guild) has trumpeted out its own bevy of top names who are openly supporting the 120,000 member union’s effort to stop AFTRA’s new deal, requiring them to return to the bargaining table with both unions forging ahead with an battle against the producers.

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In a move that will no doubt cause some serious cracks in SAG support among the rank-n-file, influential actors Tom Hanks and George Clooney are showing support for AFTRA, the smaller actor’s union, in its decision to make a deal with the AMPTP, a deal that SAG leadership doesn’t like. Members of AFTRA will vote to ratify the deal in the first week of July, according to Hollywood trade paper Variety.

Other actors also showing support for AFTRA are Academy Award winner James Cromwell, Emmy winner Mike Farrell, Morgan Fairchild, Tess Harper and Richard Masur. Masur’s support for AFTRA’s deal with the producers is a real blow to SAG’s cause because he was a one-time president of the Screen Actors Guild. He and the other actors on board with AFTRA are claiming that SAG, in its unbending demands, “hold(s) us all hostage.” They also are alleging that SAG’s actions will create a business shut down that the industry can ill affored at this time, especially after such a prolonged WGA strike, which lasted four months.

SAG has a membership of 120,000 while AFTRA counts 70,000 members with 40,000 of those having joint-membership in the two unions.

According to a written statement from those actors supporting AFTRA — “AFTRA has made a good deal,” the letter said. “In fact, under the circumstances, it’s a very good deal. As did the DGA, WGA and AFTRA net code deals, the AFTRA Exhibit A deal establishes important new principals and even improves on those deals.”

“AFTRA will almost certainly step back and let SAG attempt to make a deal without them,” the letter went on to say. “AFTRA will not go back to the table with SAG, no matter what the SAG leadership is saying — you just can’t spend years openly vilifying another organization, destroying their work, and still expect them to come back and work cooperatively. AFTRA will let SAG go in with its list of demands (that none of the other unions got) and hold us all hostage.”

Two other top stars, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep, are also urging SAG leaders to be more open about looking at AFTRA’s deal and seeing if compromise can’t be negotiated in order to thwart a possible strike after the SAG contract expires on June 30.

It’s beginning to look like a new contract between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) will probably not happen by current contract’s end-date of June 30.

The AMPTP issued a statement late last night that indicated that they are tired, “frustrated and discouraged” in their dealings with SAG’s negotiators. They also indicated that it’s not likely a deal will be forthcoming by the quickly approaching due date.

Will this mean strike? Maybe not. SAG leaders indicated through their director Doug Allen in a statement to the Associated Press that the guild is prepared to continue negotiations into July at this point in hopes of staving-off a work stoppage. This news sounds hopeful in light of the fact that no formal call for a strike authorization has been issued to the guild’s membership.

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