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SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > APRIL 27 > 2005

CHINA TAKES ON THE PIRATES
China's music piracy rate is 90%, (or close to US$600 million), and reports would indicate that only a fraction of all music downloads from the world wide web are actually legitimate. In an innovative move, the Chinese government and Universal Music Publishing have partnered with R2G, a Chinese licensing and distribution company, to address digital music piracy. See full article here: http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme

ITALIAN DJ RECEIVES RECORD FINE FOR MP3 PIRACY
Italian authorities have shown their commitment to fighting the violation of copyright after the Italian Fiscal Police carried out a raid and seized a large quantity of material without the SIAE watermark (the identification tag used to recognise authorised copies of copyrighted material). An investigation leading up to the raid had discovered that a DJ from Rome (not from Sydney.. *wink*) was using around 500 video clips and more than 2000 mp3 files during his performances in a club in Rieti. Subsequently, an administrative fine of €1.4m was imposed on him. The fine is the largest recorded penalty to be imposed on an individual for music piracy in an European jurisdiction. The decision shows that the Italian legislature has chosen to adopt a stricter approach to the issue of illegal downloading and copying of musical content, and peer to peer related prosecutions against individuals are now an established reality not only in the US but also in Europe.

FRENCH COURT BANS DRM FOR DVD'S
And to conclude the unapologetically 'legal' theme of this week's Newsletter, here's how our French cousins dispense their justice. The French Appeal Court just issued a ruling preventing the inclusion of all anti-copying devices on DVD's. This decision follows an incident where a man was not able to copy a DVD he purchased onto a VHS cassette so he could watch it later at his mum's place. Allegedly this form of 'private copying' is considered a Consumer Right in France, so the man, with considerable help from a consumer protection group, was actually able to sue the Film Studio that produced the DVD. As it stands Film studios now have exactly one month to unprotect all DVDs. Sacre Bleu.. I certainly hope that this doesn't apply to the DVD's that we already own!

THE TIGER IS OUT OF THE CAGE
Mac's long-awaited all-new-better-improved Operating System Mac OS X Tiger will be available to customers all over the globe from 6:00 pm this Friday at a series of special events held at the company's retail locations and authorized retailers. PC users.. read'em and weep: http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/04/12/tiger/index.php

CELEBRITY LEGAL PROCESSOR QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"My grandmother always told me; beauty fades, but dumb is forever!" - Judge Judy

CD pitch - JM

SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > APRIL 20 > 2005

ADOBE ACQUIRES MACROMEDIA
In what is undoubtedly the biggest ever deal in the content creation and Web development sector, Adobe Systems Incorporated announced on Monday a definitive agreement to acquire Macromedia in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion. The acquisition is intended to extend the company's lead in the market for creating and distributing digital documents. Adobe, best known for its Acrobat document-sharing software, said the deal would help it meet rising customer demand for audio and video documents and images that are compatible with handheld devices.

CREATIVE ARCHIVE FOR UK ONLY
After the massive build-up given to the BBC Creative Archive project, (a consortium of the BBC, Channel 4, BFI, and Open University), it's a bit of a disappointment to see that they've decided to spin-off their own license rather than endorse Creative Commons. It would seem that while the BBC has vehemently endorsed the exploration of free-for-non-commercial-use licensing for its content, it has simultaneously denied its benefits to the rest of the world since the license (as it stands) is explicitly for "use within the UK". http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk

NIN GOES GARAGE
In a bold move to spread their Industrial Music even further afield, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has decided to release the new single from NIN's upcoming album as a GarageBand file to facilitate remixes by a legion of technologically omnivorous fans. Though by no means the first time a major-label artist has released a track to the public for remix, this is certainly the first time such a project has been as open to the common user. The repercussions to 'traditional' IP views in music could be beneficial to us all.

DIY FEATURE ANIMATION REDEFINED
Rustboy is a short film project that started out as a hobby but has evolved over time into an ambitious animated (not-so-short) film and several side-projects thanks to the lateral approach and dogged perseverance of its creator Brian Taylor. Interest generated by Taylor's elegantly designed and beautifully detailed website led to the creation of a book and assorted merchandise whose sales will ultimately help to fund the film. If you want to see a prime example of how the DIY approach can work across a variety of spectrums check out: http://www.rustboy.com

ANIMATION BIGWIG QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality." - Walt Disney

SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > APRIL 13 > 2005

AND IN YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES..
Better late than never, the mainstream press have decided to report on our little drama with MEAA. Yeah.. and what's more we even made the front page of the Technology section of yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald: http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/11/1113071894581.html

PIXAR SKETCHES ON
The facility of being able to sketch on top of video is being used to good effect at Pixar where 'The Review Sketch tool' is emerging as a powerful communication device. http://millimeter.com/mag/video_tool_time_pixar/index.html

INDIE BAND PIONEERS BIT TORRENT DISTRIBUTION
The Decemberists claim to be the first band to be distributing a music video by Bit Torrent with the release of their clip for '16 Military Wives'. http://decemberists.com/16mw-torrent.html

OPEN SOURCE MEDIA PROJECT
Open-Media.org is an open source media project that seeks to expose, preserve, and advance works of grassroots creativity (chiefly, but not limited to, amateur video). http://www.newmediamusings.com/blog/2004/08/open_media_the_.html

BEAT PROPHET QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Whoever controls the media, the images.. controls the culture." - Allen Ginsberg

Old news

Better late than never, the mainstream press write up our little drama with MEAA - front page of the Technology section of today's Sydney Morning Herald - http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/04/11/1113071894581.html

Nice picture of Simon Whipp, if anyone was wondering who's been trying so hard to kill the production here in Sydney.

Lucky the journalists seem to be on our side. The article was going to be more on Simon's more sensational media release quotes (donkey sex anyone?) but I seem to have convinced them to lay off till we get our shoot in the can. We've got enough of a job to do without someone seizing on this as a union-bashing opportunity. Enough politics, let's get back to making the film.

Eucalypt forest fire

This clip from "eucalypt" (ABC TV series "Down From The Heart") is exactly what I'm looking for re. pristine, burning and bashed bush.

Film Sponsorship leaflet

Latest version in ftp://ftp.modfilms.com/filmsponsorshipletter

SANCTUARY NEWSLETTER > APRIL 06 > 2005

A FEW MORE WORDS FROM OUR LEADER
It’s been one of those weeks. For every setback, there’s been an exciting development. For every grindingly painful issue, there’s been joyful discovery. The worst news of the week is that the MEAA and supposedly SAG are trying really hard behind the scenes to scare people away from the project. And the best news? People are coming out of the woodwork to lend their quiet and not-so-quiet support.

The Australian Film Commission will not be endorsing the film, simply investing AU$50,000 for post and interactive work. But don’t believe everything you read in print. I read this week in a MEAA news bulletin that the Creative Commons Australia team are re-writing the Aus licenses to include performers moral rights (not a bad thing in itself). I rang them personally this week and found out that they’d said no such thing. Who’s zooming who you might ask… Information warfare is not science fiction.

I don’t know about you but I’m learning a lot about modern film-making that isn’t on the tin and that the bleeding edge still bleeds - one way of knowing you’re still alive they say! I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s been a hard couple of weeks. But for those who’ve been pitching in for the last few weeks, months, and in some cases years, hang in there. It’s only a movie after all, but one that’s well and truly on the map now, before camera roll, without a penny or cent spent on marketing, and that can only mean we’re onto something. What exactly that something is, remains to be seen. Your contribution may be more important than you may realize. It’s a re-mixable film after all. And in the refrain of NBC President, Herb Schlosser, renowned for his caring sharing approach to producers pitching their wares - “Who cares?” Respect, .M.

YAHOO TRIALS CREATIVE COMMONS SEARCH FACILITY
Yahoo has become the first mainstream search engine to allow users to restrict their search to material that has only Some Rights Reserved. All rights reserved protection is a good thing for many authors and artists, but what about those who want you to use their work freely, without permission but on certain conditions? Yahoo's Creative Commons Search engine helps you quickly find those authors and the work they have marked as free to use with only some rights reserved: http://search.yahoo.com/cc

MAPPED OUT
Google has come up trumps once again by launching a new set of interactive maps that are draggable, in other words - no clicking and waiting for graphics to reload each time you want to view the adjacent parts of a map. If you wanna see something really mind-blowing, click on the 'Satellite' function. Who needs VFX when you've got Google Maps! http://maps.google.com

MEAA VS MOD FILMS
MEAA is up in arms over growing support for Sanctuary, but obviously not everyone is all that impressed with them right now! Film-maker, Playwright and respected blogger Brian Flemming writes: http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/archives/001540.html

DEARLY DEPARTED RELIGIOUS LEADER QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded." - Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

Yahoo Creative Commons search facility

Massive: Yahoo trials Creative Commons search facility

Mapping the urban sprawl

Who needs VFX when you've got maps.google.com?

Who cares

While Google announces a video upload facility, and sites like current.tv and ourmedia.org emerge to promote audience-contributed channels, the MEAA is busy slamming us for trying to raise the aesthetic and dramatic stakes. Sitting here in my mother-in-law's spare room, the fact that this is a storm in a teacup is some consolation.

Massive: MEAA rages on about CC

And time to find out who cares about this project. I'm not going to rise to the bait and "go to war" on MEAA as some suggest. Life's too short. I'm going to just make my movie and then get onto making another one. But some more public shows of support would be nice.

http://modfilms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=517#517

CD as game art