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Evil Corporations #3: Macrovision

I haven’t done an Evil Corporations story in over two years, and it’s definitely time. The focus: Macrovision.

From their About Us page on their website:

Macrovision helps solve the global need for content protection, DRM and software licensing solutions.

Now we all know that I’m no fan of DRM or Digital Rights Management, and right there in their company description Macrovision makes it a point to let you knwo that’s exactly what they’re about.

Macrovision’s claim to fame was protecting VHS tapes in the 80s – did you ever try and copy a videotape from a rental store, and got those rainbow lines at the top and bottom? That’s them.

Even though it’s legal for you, as a consumer in the United States, to make one copy for backup and archival purposes, they make sure you can’t.

The latest story hitting the web today, is a follow-up to one from June. In June, Macrovision sent a cease and desist letter to Lightning UK!, makers of DVD Decrypter. DVD Decrypter lets you strip the DRM off a DVD so you can archive to a hard drive or make a physical copy. Macrovision claimed the ability to strip the DRM violated their patents.

Well, the latest story has Macrovision claiming they’ve bought out Lightning UK!, and sending takedown notices to websites hosting DVD Decrypter. I’m sure they paid off the original developer thinking if you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em (ala Microsoft).

This is unfortunate for two reasons – one, reverse engineering should not be illegal, and in the U.S., under the DMCA, it now is. Two, if the developer had released this under a free software licenses, such as the GPL, the code would be in the wild. Now, due the evil greed of one corporation, we’re going to lose the ability to back up our DVDs. I know, as the father of 2 (almost three!) children, that I want to back up the movies they watch a lot and put them on a home theater PC. No more scratching and wrecking movies – which has happened with a few already.

But no, I’m no longer allowed to. And that’s why Macrovision is being added to my list of evil corporations.

Watching all 6 Star Wars (at the same time)

And… we’re back.

Not that this hasn’t already posted everywhere on the intraweb right now, but is still very cool. Someone with way too much time on their hands has transcoded all 6 Star Wars movies and is watching them simultaneously and noting all the similarities.

Some are to say, at the least, quite interesting parallels in some of the movies, just from a time perspective.

Check it out here.

Miyazaki Film Festival

Via BoingBoing:

CartoonBrew.com is reporting that Turner Classic Movies is planning to air 9 Miyazaki films (the one’s Disney acquired distribution rights for) in January. The titles include Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso and Whisper of the Heart.

If you haven’t seen a Miyazaki film – even the popular ones such as Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, you owe it to yourself to check out these animated classics. It’s unknown at this time whether they will be dubbed or sub-titled, but either way this is some of the best animated movies you’ll ever see.

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November

The trailer for V for Vendetta has been released. Available in standard Quicktime, or 1920×1280 HD in Quicktime 7 using the h.264 codec.

I had read the graphic novel over 10 years ago, and bought it and re-read it 3 weeks ago. I absolutely love the author, Alan Moore, and this particular story – though his books are 10x better than the movies that are turned out based on his source material, as he’s never been involved in any of the movies made from his books.

The imagery and themes seem very true to the comic book, though I’ve heard a few things about the movie that don’t ring true.

We’ll see – the Wachowski brothers adapted and produced it, and it stars Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman.

X3 Follow-Up

As I blogged the other day, talking to a cow-orker in the know, Kelsey Grammar will be playing Beast in the upcoming X-men 3 movie.

My cow-orker is pretty excited about it as he thinks it’s the perfect role. I can see it – he has the speech mannerisms down to play a smart scientist. He and I share the same concerns about Bret Ratner directing though.

Jeffrey Wells’ Hollywood Elsewhere column had a brief mention of Ratner taking over in his “Wired” blog like piece on the front page, seperate from the stories he writes, that’s pretty harsh as well:

06/ 9/2005 5:53 AM

The fanboy community freaked last week when 20th Century Fox announced their decision to hire Breet Ratner to direct X-Men 3. Ratner will of course degrade the franchise. Not in any thuddingly obvious way but in a hundred little ways. One of these is his decision to add more laughs. “Not jokes for the sake of jokes,” Ratner said in a recent interview, but “jokes that come from character humor, that come from characters and that come from the situations.” This sounds to me like a guy saying he doesn’t entirely get (much less get off on) the X-Men mythology or metaphor, and that he’s a tiny bit bored by it so why not throw in some more gags? As Red Dragon was to Silence of the Lambs, X-Men 3…we know how this sentence ends, dont we? X-Men 3 will begin shooting in Vancouver in mid-August.

Episode III, Part 2

I figured out what’s been bothering me about Episode III. For as much as I love it, it’s Padme’s role that bothers me. In Episode I, Queen Amidala was portrayed as a strong character, who loved her planet, and fought the evils of the Trade Federation’s invasion. In Episode II, she was again a strong character as a Senator, trying to keep the Republic together when the Separtists threatened to destroy it.

In Episode III, her role is to be in love with Anakin. She’s not shown as a strong political figure anymore, just as someone who questions what side she’s on. Her love for Anakin is the major plot line, and she’s, at best, a secondary character relegated to worrying, instead of taking action like she did in the first two movies, whether it was traveling to Coruscant to defend Naboo, or going to rescue Obi-Wan in AOTC.

It’s too bad really – she’s much more emotive in this film, and for as good as an actor as she is, and her two awful performances in the first two (which I blame Lucas for more than her), it’s too bad too see her relegated to the sidelines in Episode III.

Some other interesting thoughts on Episode III.