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Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy Win SAG Awards, Safe Oscar Bets

Authored by Jay Baage on January 28, 2007 - 4:04pm.
Dreamgirls newcomer Jennifer Hudson and old-timer Eddie Murphy each won a SAG award on Sunday night, making it ever more likely they both will take home Oscars in February. Eddie Murphy also took the opportunity to reflect a little on the nature of these Hollywood award shows and which movies and actors they celebrate.
tags: Marketing | Movies | Awards | Oscar | SAG | Rotten Tomatoes | Eddie Murphy | Jennifer Hudson |

Leaked Oscar Screener DVDs Already Appearing Online

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 20, 2005 - 7:20am.
Los Gatos, Calif. -- Several of the advance DVD screener copies of movies up for Academy Awards, sent to members of the Academy for voting purposes, have already popped up on file-sharing services, according to BayTSP, an anti-piracy firm working with studios to monitor file-sharing networks. "Screeners have been distributed to Academy members and many of them are already appearing online," said BayTSP CEO Mark Ishikawa. "It's common knowledge in the pirate community that screeners are digitally watermarked and some groups make attempts, usually unsuccessfully, to erase those marks." The leaks come despite the well-publicized ouster of a member of the Academy last year for passing his screeners to several others, who were then prosecuted for posting them online. BayTSP did not disclose which studios it has worked with to watermark their screener DVDs, which Oscar contender films are now available online, or what actions are being taken to potentially identify any leakers.
tags: Internet | DVD | Oscar | Leak |

Convicted Oscar "Screener" Pirate Found Dead in Jail Cell

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 1, 2005 - 7:56am.
Los Angeles -- The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that a man awaiting sentencing after being convicted on federal charges of Internet movie piracy has been found dead in his jail cell. Authorities told the Times that Russell Sprague, 52, may have died of a heart attack; an autopsy is scheduled for today. Sprague faced up to three years in prison for copying and posting online a number of films up for Oscars last year from the "screener" versions sent out by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences to Oscars voters. Sprague was also ordered to pay Columbia Pictures over $300,000 in damages. Actor Carmine Caridi, the Oscar voter and initial recipient of the screeners obtained by Sprague, was expelled by the Academy but not charged with any crime in connection with the prosecution of Sprague. "It's so sad," Sprague's attorney Anthony Brooklier told the Times. "He was upbeat. He had already served nine months. He may have only been looking at a maximum of eight more months."
tags: Oscar | Pirate | Screener | Dead | Jail Cell |

MPAA Sues Oscar Nominated Movie File-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 24, 2005 - 4:23am.
Los Angeles -- The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on Thursday filed a third wave of lawsuits against individuals allegedly trading movies on Internet file-sharing networks, targeting in particular those swapping Oscar-nominated films that have seen their DVD screeners leaked online. The MPAA did not say how many individuals it sued with the current wave of litigation, but did mention that films including "Sideways" and "The Incredibles" were part of the investigations. The MPAA has launched two previous rounds of lawsuits against both individual movie file-swappers, and operators of servers in countries including France, Finland and Holland that host movies traded on peer-to-peer networks like eDonkey and BitTorrent. Recently, LokiTorrent, one such server site, agreed to shut down and pay the MPAA a $1 million settlement.
tags: MPAA | Movie | Oscar | File-Swappers |