Media Industries Project - Carsey Wolf Center

"Federal regulators trying to bring high-speed Internet connections to all Americans will propose tapping the government program that now subsidizes telephone service in poor and rural areas. The Federal Communications Commission will include a proposal to revamp the Universal Service Fund as part of a national broadband plan due to Congress on March 17. Although the proposal itself has been expected for months, Friday's announcement offered the first solid details."

"The Los Angeles Times' critic may have panned the film, but that didn't stop Disney from paying top dollar to turn the newspaper's front page into a special advertisement for the new movie, "Alice in Wonderland." The ad, believed to be the first of its kind among America's leading big-city dailies, dismayed some readers and was lamented by media scholars as the latest troubling sign of difficult times at the newspaper and for journalism generally. Hollywood blogger Sharon Waxman cited one "media buyer insider" as saying the Walt Disney Co, the studio behind the film, paid $700,000 for the space.

"The front page of Friday's Los Angeles Times was taken over by an ad for Disney's "Alice in Wonderland." The ad, which featured Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter character, was superimposed over a mock front page. The paper's real A1 appeared behind it. "We worked very closely with Disney to come up with an exceptional and distinctive way to help them open 'Alice in Wonderland,'" John Conroy, a spokesman for the LAT, told The Wrap's Sharon Waxman. "It was designed to create buzz, and to extend the film's already brilliant marketing campaign. "

"At first glance of Friday's Los Angeles Times, you might think the Mad Hatter has taken over the newspaper. Johnny Depp's colorful character in Disney's new film "Alice in Wonderland" dominates a faked front page, which includes the paper's traditional flag and two stories that appeared in the paper last month. Los Angeles Times spokesman John Conroy said the "cover-wrap" was an "unusual opportunity to stretch the usual boundaries and design an innovative ad designed to create buzz." Roy Peter Clark, a senior journalism scholar at the Poynter Institute, said tough economic times and lower ads sales have forced newspapers to tear down the ethics wall that separated a paper's front page from advertisers."

"Three million cable customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will see their ABC station go to black (or something like it) early Sunday morning unless The Walt Disney Company and Cablevision either strike a deal or extend their tense contract negotiations. Cablevision's contract to carry the ABC station in New York City, WABC, expires at midnight, and the two companies are in a standoff over how much Disney, which owns ABC, should be paid for the right to retransmit the signal."

"With a midnight deadline looming on a threat to pull the plug on Cablevision's 3.1 million customers in New York a day before the Academy Awards, there's still no word on whether ABC's parent company and the cable operator have reached a decision."

"If you like NBC's Thursday night comedy lineup, you will be happy to know that "30 Rock," "The Office" and "Community" will be back in the fall for more fun and games. "Parks and Recreation" had already been renewed."

"A group of 25 Liberal Democrat candidates has penned an open letter urging the party to rethink its bid to cut off sites accused of copyright infringement. The Lib Dems' Lord Clement Jones successfully tabled an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill which would give courts the power to force ISPs to block sites accused of copyright infringement." The policy has been attacked as "dangerous" by civil liberties campaigners, who \nfear it swings the balance of power in favour of copyright holders and could harm free speech."

"RealNetworks Inc. said it will pay $4.5 million and drop its appeal of a court order barring sales of its DVD-copying software to settle a lawsuit by Walt Disney Co. and other Hollywood movie studios claiming the technology violates copyright-protection laws. RealNetworks also will refund about 2,700 customers who bought RealDVD, a $30 software program that allows users to save one backup copy of a movie to a computer hard drive."

Television set-top box maker TiVo Inc. won an federal appeals court ruling expected to force Dish Network and EchoStar corporations to pay at least $300 million in damages for a patent violation.

Disney is planning to release "Alice in Wonderland" a month earlier than typical DVD releases. They hope to capitalize on buzz from the theatrical release. Surprisingly, movie theaters are not protesting the plan, in spite of the money they could potentially lose from the film being pulled early from theaters.

Viacom probably won't sue bloggers who post clips from their shows (like The Daily Show and Colbert Report), in spite of earlier reports that they intended to sue websites that made money on copyrighted material.

"The context of this decision is interesting, in that the issue arose in the restructuring of Nassau Broadcasting, where its creditors were to take a controlling position in the company in exchange for a release of some of the company's debt. However, the new ownership position of its creditors, where their interests became attributable for the first time, required multiple ownership reviews in several markets, as these same investors were owners, or holders of significant debt (triggering an EDP issue) in other companies holding radio or TV licenses in nearby markets."

The Supreme Court on Tuesday resurrected a possible settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by freelance writers who said that newspapers and magazines had committed copyright infringement by making their contributions available on electronic databases. The proposed settlement was prompted by a 2001 decision from the Supreme Court in favor of six freelance authors claiming copyright infringement in The New York Times Company v. Tasini. After the Tasini decision, many freelance works were removed from online databases. Most publishers now require freelance writers to sign contracts granting both print and online rights. After the decision, the authors, publishers and database companies who were parties to several class-action lawsuits negotiated a global settlement that would pay the plaintiffs up to $18 million.

The BBC is poised to sell its selection of UK-based magazines, including such titles as BBC Good Food, Gardening World, Top Gear and Radio Times. The corporation is looking to cut over $150 million USD in overhead costs and evidently plans to accomplish this by "looking to move away from physical media" and focusing more deeply on digital media as well as looking overseas for merger opportunities. The BBC has already begun stripping itself of media such as audio books, non-BBC channels outside the UK and two radio stations. It also cut the number of websites it owns by half, resulting in an estimated loss of 600 jobs.

The University of California at Los Angeles on Wednesday announced that it will continue streaming copyrighted videos in online "virtual classrooms" despite legal objections from an educational media trade group. The university's decision is the latest development in a copyright dispute with the Association for Information and Media Equipment over whether it is legal for the university to convert DVDs from its libraries into a digital format that students can stream from password-protected course Web sites. UCLA considers the practice "essential," since it allows students to watch the videos on their own computers and on their own time, rather than having to gather in a classroom. Many educators at other colleges have watched the case with intent, waiting to see what implications, if any, the spat might have on their own institutions' use of streaming video.

RealNetworks has agreed to kill its DVD-copying software and pay $4.5 million in settling a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood studios. As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, the provider of online entertainment services also agreed to drop its appeal of a San Francisco federal court ruling that barred RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of the studios' copyrighted content. The 2008 lawsuit filed by Viacom and the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that RealDVD illegally circumvented the anti-piracy technology embedded in DVDs. The DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses Hollywood-sanctioned copyright-protection technology, joined the suit later, claiming RealNetworks was also in violation of its DVD CCA license.

Article discussing the complexities of content produced on the web, and how quality and standards have changed in order to adapt to the internet marketplace.