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The Italian Court of Appeals has recalled a blocking order against the video streaming service Filmakerz.org. The court argued that the order was too broad and specified that partial blocking of a specific URL is preferred over site-wide blockage, while copyright infringing portals must have a for-profit angle. Back in March, the Public Prosecutor of Rome ordered national ISPs to block access to 46 torrent, streaming and other file-sharing websites. This move became the largest enforcement action against “pirate” websites in the country, and the authorities promised that it wouldn’t be the last. One of the services affected by the ban was Filmakerz.org, a video streaming service offering its subscribers a variety of films and TV-shows for free. The website was mainly popular in Italy, and its traffic plummeted as a result of the blockage. However, unlike most blocked websites, Filmakerz.org decided to appeal the decision and succeeded. A few days ago the Court of Appeals overturned the ban order against the website, confirming that it was too broad and therefore invalid. The panel of judges pointed out that each blocking request should specify the exact URLs which infringe copyrighted works, not just a single domain name. Since the court doesn’t have an exact location of the infringing material, the court cannot verify the validity of the blocking request. The attorneys of Filmakerz.org admitted that the ruling was a clear blow against the increasing censorship efforts in the country. They also cited two important ground rules specified by the court. The first was that the Public Prosecutor had to prove the existence of a for-profit motivation to block the site, while the second was that parts of the website that contain legal content must not affected. In other words, a partial seizure of an exact link is preferred over the seizure of the entire website. The ruling comes at a difficult time for Italian file-sharers: just a few days ago the country’s Electronic Communications Authority introduced new regulations that would allow foreign portals to be blocked more easily. As a result of the recent court ruling, local Internet service providers were instructed to unblock Filmakerz.org. Thus far, it is unclear if other blocked websites are going to appeal the blockade.

Although the Chinese authorities might like market forces, they still don’t want to have a method of payment they can’t control in their own country. It became known that a couple of Bitcoin exchanges dealing in the cyber currency have been forced to suspend bank transfers from citizens depositing yuan to purchase Bitcoins. One of those exchanges, FXBTC, confirmed that a number of banks had ordered it to close accounts used to take customer deposits, in accordance to the tightened regulations from the country’s Central Bank. It seems that since today all commercial banks and 3rd-party payment platforms have been ordered to close similar services tied to Bitcoin transfers. One exchange that suffered in the move, BTC38, made a similar announcement, saying that due to the “influence from China’s Central Bank”, the online service had been forced to revoke deposits made via bank transfers. Actually, this move was expected, because back in March the Chinese government said they wanted to tighten regulations covering the cyber currency. The China’s Central Bank required that all banks and 3rd-party payment firms close accounts operated by online Bitcoin exchanges by April 15. At the moment, it seems the enforcement is uneven one exchange – BTCTrade.com claimed on its website that it would temporarily suspend online currency transfer, but that bank transfers were still accepted. In addition, OKCoin also said its bank transfers were still in operation. The industry observers point out that Bitcoin was doing quite well in the country, but the country’s government is concerned with the currency’s lack of central monetary authority, as well as its potential use for laundering money. So far though the government has said people are free to buy Bitcoins.

Taking into account an election result which shows that most Turks do not care if their government is corrupt, the Turkish Prime Minister simply slammed a constitutional court ruling which lifted a ban on Twitter. While he is currently purging the state of anyone who disagrees with him, the constitutional court may find itself on his list as well. Prime Minister claimed that the court should have rejected a request to restore access to the micro-blogging website. He was cited in the news before departing on a trip to Azerbaijan that although the government did comply with the ruling, he didn’t respect it. Apparently, Twitter’s appeal should have been rejected on procedural grounds. We remind that access to Twitter was blocked last month in the run-up to national elections, but the country’s telecoms authority had to lift the 2-week-old ban after the court ruled the block breached freedom of speech. Turkish Prime Minister wanted the service offline so that opposition groups would stop using it in order to point out a corruption scandal that involved both Prime Minister and his ministers. The government had managed to silence the press, but couldn’t stop people chatting about it online. Unfortunately, his electoral base is in the less well-connected poorer regions of the country, and his voters didn’t actually care about corruption or whatever, so Prime Minister did well in the elections. Ironically enough, that means that all the politician has to do to become incredibly popular is be nicer to the well educated parts of country and allow more free speech. Perhaps, for Turkey this way is “too easy”.

City of London Police's anti-piracy campaign Operation Creative is pushing ahead with the disruption of copyright-infringing sites. On Monday, detectives arrested a man in his mid-20s on suspicion of operating several streaming links sites. The unit also suspended several domains, which now show a familiar warning banner. Speaking with TorrentFreak late last week, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) clarified the stages behind Operation Creative, an ongoing campaign aimed at disrupting the activities of unauthorized content sites. “At the first instance of a website being identified, evidenced and confirmed as providing copyright infringing content, the site owner is contacted by officers at the PIPCU and offered the opportunity to engage with the police, to correct their behavior and to begin to operate legitimately,” a spokesperson explained. “In the contact sent to the website owners PIPCU clearly states that if a website fails to comply and engage with the police, then a variety of other tactical options may be used including; contacting the domain registrar to seek suspension of the site, disrupting advertising revenue and advert replacement.” But while disruption is clearly on the agenda, the police can also rely on the traditional investigation and arrest process. Earlier this week, that’s exactly what they did. pipcu-mapSometime on Monday morning, detectives from PIPCU carried out an arrest of a 26-year-old man in the UK. He was detained in York, England, a city located around four hours drive from PIPCU’s base in the City of London. The man was arrested on suspicion of operating a number of streaming-related domains. At the time of writing PIPCU has not responded to our requests for comment, but TF has discovered that earlier this week sports streaming domains BoxingGuru.co.uk, boxingguru.eu, boxingguru.tv and nutjob.eu were all suspended. The sites currently redirect to a page carrying a statement indicating they are under investigation for online copyright infringement. Police have not yet publicly linked their closure with the arrest on Monday.

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As first published by Fight Copyright Trolls over the past weekend, the latest new scare tactic being used by notorious porn copyright troll firm, Malibu Media, happens to be a polygraph test. We’ve discussed many times here on Slyck how atrocious it is that copyright troll law firms use scare tactics to try to get their victims to pay up “or else”, but this is the first we have heard about polygraph tests being used and it takes the definition of scare tactics to an all-time disturbing low. When it comes to alleged copyright infringement, we’ve seen how firms like Prenda Law, ACS Law and Malibu Media operate, and it’s far from impressive. When it comes to alleged porn copyright theft, it can be extremely embarrassing for any alleged infringer who does not want to risk exposure to friends and family for any porn related viewing or violation. Malibu Media has been sanctioned in the past for using embarrassing scare tactics. In a recent court document filed in the northern district of Illinois federal court by Malibu Media, an adult film company who operates website X-Art.com, Malibu cites several infringements by BitTorrent users in several cases. They state, “Plaintiff knows that during the period of January 1, 2014 through March 21, 2014, there were at least 175,000 Americans who infringed its content within the BitTorrent file distribution network, many of which reside in this district. Plaintiff has no other way to make the infringement stop and seek recourse for its losses than to bring a suit like the one before this Court.” They also stated in the complaint, “Unfortunately, many people have decided to take its movies illegally through the BitTorrent protocol instead of lawfully subscribing to its website.” Malibu explains it has adopted high standards prior to serving a defendant and in some cases has determined to not pursue a case based on insufficient evidence. Further down on page four of the document the lawyers add, “Further, Malibu will dismiss its claims against any Defendant who agrees to and passes a polygraph administered by a licensed examiner of the Defendant's choosing. Out of the entirety of polygraphs administered within the United States by Malibu, no Defendant has passed and all such examinations have subsequently led to the Defendant settling the case.” The court document also provides details on the number of cases filed, and the status of those cases. Malibu’s lawyers documented that they have “filed 268 cases within the Northern District of Illinois. Of these 268 cases, 25 cases were with joined defendants and 243cases were actions filed against a single Defendant, like the current case at hand. The 268 cases filed by Malibu had a total of 886 Defendants between them. Of these 886 defendants, 643 were within joined suits and 243 defendants were from cases against only a single defendant. Each defendant infringed, on average, 17.9 separate copyrighted works owned by Malibu between all 886 Defendants.” Of the cases, 49 defendants’ cases were dismissed for hardship, 259 were dismissed for insufficient evidence, and 304 were dismissed due to insufficient information from the ISPs. On page 14 of the court document, Malibu defends their practice by stating the following: “The undeniable fact is that some people and entities will never agree with the enforcement of copyrights on the Internet. At first, critics labeled “copyright trolls” as those who acquired copyrighted content for the sole purpose of litigation. Once Judge Baylson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as a component of Malibu’s Bellwether trial, determined that Malibu did not fit this definition of a “copyright troll,” the critics moved the goalposts and determined that any entity who derives an appreciable percent of their income from litigation is a “copyright troll.” Once it was disclosed that a de minimis percent of Malibu’s income is derived from litigation, the definition changed to an amorphous “anyone who files a lot of lawsuits.” With that definition, any person or entity owning content that is heavily infringed is destined to be called a “troll.” “Many internet blogs commenting on this and related cases ignore the rights of copyright owners to sue for infringement, and inappropriately belittle efforts of copyright owners to seek injunctions and damages.” While Malibu Media continues to defend their practice, we can only hope that their latest scare tactic of using a polygraph test will not set a example for other copyright trolls as well. We find this scare tactic scheme of their “business model” to be very disturbing.

Prenda Law, the firm that became controversial as a profligate "copyright troll" by suing thousands with lawsuits over downloading porn movies, has fallen apart over the course of the last year. The organization and the lawyers widely believed to be behind it—John Steele, Paul Hansmeier, and Paul Duffy—have been sanctioned by numerous federal judges. While Prenda has settled a few cases, most of the Prenda setbacks, including the original hammer-drop from US District Judge Otis Wright, are actually being appealed. Yesterday, the Prenda lawyers had their first oral argument (audio) on appeal in front of the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. It went about as badly as close Prenda-watchers might expect. While it's dangerous to try to guess the results of an appeal based on questions at oral argument, it doesn't look good for Prenda. The judges repeatedly challenged the statements of Daniel Voelker—the attorney defending Steele, Hansmeier, and Duffy—and that's when things were going well for the once-vigorous copyright enforcer. The low point was probably when Judge Diane Sykes asked Voelker to describe the relationship between the three iterations of law firms that Steele and Hansmeier have gone through. "Can you describe to me, in 25 words or less, what the relationship is among these various firms: Steele Hansmeier PLLC, Prenda Law, Alpha Law?" asked Judge Diane Sykes. "I can't, Your Honor," said Voelker. "I don't know. I don't know what it is today, I don't know what it was a year ago." "That is shocking," said Sykes. Light speed toward failure The Lightspeed v. Smith case was one of several "hacking" claims that Prenda began to make in late 2012. By avoiding copyright, Prenda hoped to avoid federal court. Instead, it filed a lawsuit in state court in southern Illinois, seeking to get discovery for the names of 6,600 Internet users who Prenda claimed were somehow connected to Anthony Smith, a "master hacker" who had broken into a website owned by Lightspeed Media, a porn company. Lightspeed and Prenda failed to get the discovery they wanted when they were shot down by the Illinois Supreme Court. But they didn't back down. Instead, they sued Comcast and AT&T, saying the ISPs were "aiding and abetting" the hacking. The ISPs lawyered up, and the case ended up with Prenda losing badly and being ordered to pay more than $260,000 to cover the legal fees of Comcast, AT&T, and Smith. During the appeal, Voelker tried to move the discussion away from the murky relationships between the parties—the "shell game activity," as Sykes put it at one point. He hammered home his point that US District Judge Patrick Murphy's order amounted to assumptions and conjecture based on reading other court's orders—orders that were on appeal. Voelker also said that Judge Wright, who penned the original sanction against Prenda, had essentially reached his conclusions by surfing the Web. "[Murphy] found that the attorneys had a 'relentless willingness to lie,' and there's no support for that in the record," said Voelker. "He also found that they're 'starving attorneys with shattered law practices.' Those are basically facts that the district court in California found based upon Internet research." At least two of the judges on the three-judge panel clearly didn't see it that way. "Some of these misrepresentations were in front of him, though," said Judge Diane Wood. "There's an overall concern that this was a proceeding in bad faith. It's kind of an attempt to hold up these 6,600 people [and] see who will settle. It's a troublesome record." "The district judge... couldn't point to a single allegation they made that was untrue," said Voelker at one point. "He thought they were all frivolous, actually—as I read his opinion," said Sykes. "He may have," said Voelker. "But he still has an obligation under the law to identify what it is that's frivolous, and he just didn't do that. Instead, he just adopted conclusions from other courts and different cases involving different plaintiffs." That accusation caused Sykes to start reading the most damning part of district court judge's order aloud. "At the November 13 hearing, Hansmeier skirted the Court's questions, Steele made feigned protestations, and both flat-out lied about their association with Prenda Law, Inc. in the face of documentary evidence on the record in this case and their sworn declarations in other cases," she intoned. "That has nothing to do with whether, under [28 US Code section] 1927, the claim was baseless legally and factually," insisted Voelker. On the defense side, time was split between Bart Huffman, arguing for AT&T and Comcast, and Dan Booth, the lawyer representing defendant Anthony Smith. "Was there a reasonable inquiry?" asked Booth. "We don't believe there was. Judge Wright said they didn't have much more than a 'hunch and a rumor.' In this case, our client was misidentified. They had the wrong person. They said he conspired with 6,600 other people he didn't even know." The Lightspeed v. Smith case is one of several Prenda appeals that will be considered in the near future. In California, the Ingenuity 13 v. John Doe case that Wright oversaw has been fully briefed. Another company controlled by Prenda lawyers, AF Holdings, has an appeal being argued next week in Washington DC. While Prenda has mostly experienced setbacks since Wright's ruling last year, it was able to dodge one batch of sanctions last month when a Minnesota judge ruled that the US Magistrate Judge who had issued the sanctions overstepped his authority. Voelker tried his best to make hay out of that event yesterday, arguing that at least one judge had decided "on the merits" that sanctions against Prenda were wrong-headed. Defense lawyers said the March decision to overrule sanctions was more procedural in nature, relating to the bounds of the magistrate judge's power.

In the wake of Game Of Thrones season 4′s first episode yesterday, we’ve seen the inevitable follow-up statistics claiming that Australia downloads more pirate copies of Game Of Thrones than any other country in the world. And as usual, these claims are deeply suspect and essentially unjustified. Torrent news site TorrentFreak estimates that more than a million copies of the episode were downloaded on the day of its debut (which was Monday Australian time, Sunday in the US). It based that claim on examining torrents that were being openly shared, which probably means it’s an under-estimate (since encrypted and private torrents wouldn’t be included). But while that figure is rubbery, the figures about which countries are downloading are even more questionable. Here’s how TorrentFreak explained its methodology: In addition to the downloads, we also looked at the countries people were sharing from. A sample of 18,333 IP-addresses collected over the day shows that Australia takes the crown with 11.6% of the total. The United States is a good second with 9.3%, followed by the United Kingdom with 5.8%. That sample of 18,333 addresses represents less than 2 per cent of the claimed total downloads. We don’t know how the addresses were selected. More importantly, we don’t know what time they were selected. As we noted earlier in the year when examining similar statistics about the Breaking Bad finale, Australia would be over-represented if you checked statistics between 6pm and 7pm our time, as people returning home from work began their downloads for an evening’s viewing. By that point, many people in the US would have finished their downloads already. All of the other points we raised in that article apply here too. In particular, identifying country of origin by IP address isn’t perfect, so making absolute claims is difficult. Here’s the main thing: the claim that Australia tops the world for Game Of Thrones piracy is ultimately based on the behaviour of just 2103 people (11.6 per cent of the 18,133 sampled addresses). I’d actually be amazed if the number of Australians who pirated the show was anywhere near as low as that — but that’s the figure on which the claim is based. Statistically, it’s nonsense. Yes, conventional TV ratings are based on small sample sizes too. But those groups are selected to be representative of broader demographic trends, and the methodology used is public. Neither is true in TorrentFreak’s case. We have no idea how those addresses were selected or what period of time they were collected over. There’s simple not enough evidence for the claim about Australian piracy to stand up. A final thought. The claimed million downloads is only one-sixth of the 6 million people who actually watched the show in the US on HBO. Piracy is clearly a problem, but it still doesn’t represent the majority of the audience for the show.

After Popcorn Time's original creators abandoned the successful project, what kind of future does it have? To find out, TorrentFreak caught up with the groups behind today's two main versions. Both sound pretty dedicated and each has exciting news, including an imminent Android version and upcoming Chromecast support. Unless you’ve had an Internet outage lasting a month, news of the Popcorn Time app will have appeared on your screen on several occasions. It dramatically burst onto the scene in March and stirred up a huge controversy, but just a handful of weeks later it was abandoned by its creators. Being open source the project was easy for others to pick up but without the original GetPopCornTi.me URL it was always going to be difficult for new project leaders to immediately show they were the ‘real deal’. Nevertheless, today there are two main Popcorn Time replacements, both of which call themselves Popcorn Time. To get some clarity, TorrentFreak caught up with the people behind both projects to find out about their plans. For simplicity’s sake we’ll refer to them by their current URLs – popcorn-time.tv and time4popcorn.eu. Popcorn-Time.tv Popcorn-Time.tv’s website has the same look and feel as the original Popcorn Time and offers four version of the software – Windows and Mac plus Linux 32 and 64 bit. Everything is open source and the project page can be found on Github. So where did this group originate? “Our project started right after the original devs abandoned their project,” a Popcorn-Time.tv dev told TorrentFreak. “I happened to be working on a new feature on a fork at that moment. When the devs closed their project, people started asking what should be happening and I pointed them to my repository where I was working on fixing everything. I end up being the most-used fork after a few hours.” Shortly after another dev who had worked on the original Popcorn Time project agreed to merge his ongoing fork with what would soon become Popcorn-Time.tv. Together they released three new versions of Popcorn Time – 0.2.6, 0.2.7 and 0.2.8, the current version. “A few days ago, however, the other developer went missing, the main repository and its website were shutdown as well. So I then set up a new organization (popcorn-org) and a new website (popcorn-time.tv) to keep going,” the Popcorn-Time.tv dev explained. “In the general picture I would say we fit as the original Popcorn Time continuation. We haven’t added many features yet since we are working on getting everything more stable and usable by everyone. TV series and more are planned for the next month.” Popcorn-Time.tv also informs TF that work is underway to allow their software to save downloaded movies for later viewing and that an upcoming rewrite and release of version 0.3.0 in around two weeks will sport a new UI. Sneak preview: New Popcorn-Time UI Add Chromecast and multi-torrent tracker support on top and things are looking exciting for this version of the infamous software. Time4Popcorn.eu Although it has a similar feel, Time4Popcorn.eu’s website differs slightly from the original. It is less complex and carries just a single version (Windows) of the Popcorn Time software. Which version isn’t clear since its been repackaged by the site and currently the source is private. However, speaking with TF the Time4Popcorn.eu team made it clear they have big plans, both on the feature front and in transparency terms. “We are all Popcorn Time users, and when the original project was taken down it was clear to us that we would not let this technology die, and without hesitation we took the files and put them online for download,” Time4Popcorn.eu explain. “The great response from the users and the amount of downloads a day made us very excited and we decided to invest our time in improving and preserving Popcorn Time.” The people behind this version say they are the owners of file-sharing websites with millions of visitors a day. With their experience they want to ensure Popcorn Time stays online “forever.” “Our knowledge in that field will help us to better understand what the users want and need to enjoy more of Popcorn Time,” they add. So what next for Time4Popcorn.eu? Big things, apparently, including an imminent mobile version. “At this very moment, we are working around the clock on the Android version of Popcorn Time and hoping to release it in the next two weeks,” the team reveal. And, for those worried about the current closed-source, things will change on that front too. Once the mobile version is complete the source code will be published on Github and the community will be invited to help with its development. “We will also publish our brand new release of the desktop version that will include seeding of the downloaded torrent (the current version does not seed the torrent!), a much faster torrent client and a new video player that will give us the ability to show not only MP4 videos, but all kinds of video formats that will increase the amounts of available torrents,” they add. The team says that this version will also go open source on the day of release. “For now, we are not doing anything besides staying up all night and developing this great app,” they conclude. Conclusion Having more than one version of one piece of software is certainly not ideal since it’s confusing for users, but at the moment the versions detailed above appear to be key to keeping the Popcorn Time dream alive. Which will win the battle (if they even see it that way) remains to be seen, but of course there’s aways a chance that a merger could be on the cards, if minds meet at the appropriate moment.

Our more tech-savvy users may have heard of the new 'Heartbleed' bug sweeping the interwebs. The bug exists in the piece of software that sits on a server and enables the 's' in 'https' to keep your browsing secure. The bug compromises data on the server, which could include your data. However this news update is to let you know that since we use CloudFlare to provide our 's' (SSL) in 'https', and since CloudFlare was warned about this bug over one week ago (before the public who just found out in recent hours) the issue has been completely patched for us. Further, it is worth noting that any exploitation of the bug would only have revealed data on CloudFlare servers, not ours, meaning there is no way this bug could have leaked your user data on this site. Rest assured. - GGn Staff

The sales company also locked up a series of distribution deals for the Hong Kong film fest's opening movie, "The Midnight After." HONG KONG – Fortissimo Films has sold rights for the Hong Kong International Film Festival's opening movie, The Midnight After, to Magnum Films for Malaysia, to HBO for regional pay TV in South and Central America, and to Popcorn for Southeast Asian and Hong Kong pay TV rights. The sales were closed at the Hong Kong Filmart. our editor recommends Director Fruit Chan's sci-fi thriller will open in Hong Kong this week through local distributor Golden Scene. Hong Kong DVD/video rights will be handled by Panorama. Fortissimo also sold the exclusive Latin American premium pay TV rights for CJ production Final Recipe, starring Michelle Yeoh, to HBO. The company closed deals on Berlinale award winner and Chinese box office hit Black Coal, Thin Ice, which includes an all rights deal for Hong Kong/Macau with Edko, which will release the film in Hong Kong in early May, as well as a deal for Poland with Aurora Film, for Mexico with Alfhaville Cinema, for Portugal with Alambique Films, and with HBO for a Latin American regional pay TV release in late 2015. For the company's strong performing genre picture Rigor Mortis, Fortissimo confirmed with the film's North American distributor WellGo USA a theatrical release in the U.S. in June. Final negotiations are underway for a theatrical release in the U.K. in the fall. Fortissimo chairman Michael J. Werner said, “This was by far our most successful sales outcome ever at Filmart. Our strong lineup and enthusiastic buyers accounted for this.”

Captain America: The Winter Soldier took a powerful $39.23 million in its opening three days in China, accounting for 40 percent of all screenings in the world’s second biggest film market during the Qingming "tomb-sweeping" holiday. our editor recommends Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson came to Beijing to promote the movie last month, and their visit seems to have paid off. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, showed only in 3D in China and notched up 5.6 million admissions at 102,638 screenings here, nearly 40 percent of all showings in the country over the weekend, according to data from the Beijing-based research firm Entgroup. (Marvel Disney reports that the film opened to $39.2 million, while Entgroup has the figure at $36.23 million.) This puts it ahead of the nearly $35 million that Thor: The Dark World made in its first four days back in November 2013, while Iron Man 3 took $64.5 million in its first five days. The Qingming festival is a time when people honor their ancestors. Schools and offices are closed, and many also take the opportunity to go to the movies. The movie is already making history globally. Captain America 2 bowed to a record-breaking $96.2 million in North America, for an early worldwide total of $303.3 million. With Evans back in the title role, as well as Avengers stars Johansson and Jackson, Captain America 2 picks up two years after Avengers left off. Captain America and Black Widow (Johansson) discover there is a secret conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. and fight to stop it along with the Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie. In second place at the Chinese box was Dreamworks’ Mr. Peabody & Sherman, which took another $7.63 million to bring its cume after 10 days to $15.51 million. The best-performing local movie was the plastic surgery comedy The Truth About Beauty (Zheng Rong Ri Ji), directed by Aubrey Lam and produced by Peter Chan’s We Pictures. It grossed $5.86 million its opening weekend. DreamWorks’ Need for Speed, starring Aaron Paul, slipped to fourth place but still put in a respectable performance, adding another $5.76 million to its haul and bringing its cumulative total in China to $65.08 million. George Clooney’s The Monuments Men came in fifth, holding its own with a solid $2.38 million over the holiday period. The movie has now taken $7.35 million in China after 10 days. In sixth place was Diao Yinan’s Berlin Golden Bear-winning Black Coal, Thin Ice, which grossed another $2.26 million to bring its cumulative total to $15.6 million after 17 days, a strong performance for a movie that blends arthouse sensibilities with genre noir. Just behind this was the local horror movie Death Is Here 3, which took $2.11 million in its opening three days, while On the Way, a Chinese-South Korean romantic comedy which pairs Chinese actress Huang Shengyi with South Korea’s Ji Jin-hee, took another $1.35 million to bring its cume to $3.22 million. In ninth place was Horse Trader, which grossed another $1.12 million to bring its cume to $9.94 million. Rounding out the top 10 was the domestic movie Fighting, which took another $980,000 for a total of $11.67 million.

Cross and Wain are scheduled to take part in an onstage discussion on comedy in the movies, while British singer-songwriter Singer Scott Matthews is also booked to play a set. LONDON – David Cross (Hits, Arrested Development), David Wain (Role Models) and U.K. singer-songwriter Scott Matthews are among the talent scheduled to take the stage during the third Sundance London film and music festival. our editor recommends The festival, run by the Sundance Institute and AEG Europe, takes place April 25-27 in the sprawling O2 entertainment center in the British capital. The majority of the talks and gigs will take place at the Brooklyn Bowl, the latest entertainment space which will open its doors during Sundance London. On-stage talks programmed by the Sundance Institute include one with filmmaker and Emmy Award-winning comedian and actor Cross (Hits, Arrested Development) and filmmaker Wain (They Came Together) talking comedy in films. Matthews is scheduled to perform a set along with turns from The Soho Hobo (AKA Tim Arnold) and harmonic pop group Goldheart Assembly during Sundance London. These acts were secured by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Dele Sosimi and his Afrobeat Orchestra will perform following the film screening of Finding Fela. Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper said: "The Festival Hub at Brooklyn Bowl is a space for celebrating the community of artists and audiences in London who appreciate independent film and music."

You know how, in standard movie and comic-book hype, the line is always "After this ... NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME"? The tail end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier lives up to it, as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanov (Scarlet Johansson), Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) expose and then destroy SHIELD -- the nigh-omnipresent government espionage agency tasked with securing America from global and extra-global threats. Why? Because it had been infiltrated by Hydra, the same Nazi division that Captain America took down during World War II. But it never went away; instead it infected SHIELD, from the lowest agents to the top of the pyramid, Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford). So how will this affect a show that happens to be called Agents of SHIELD? What will happen to Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg)? The Hollywood Reporter turned to the show's executive producers/showrunners, Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, who were only too happy to finally be able to talk about "the H word." What is, exactly, the H word? Jed Whedon: Hydra. After months and months of silence. How far into the planning of Agents of SHIELD did you know what would happen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier? Maurissa Tancharoen: From the very beginning. We had the order to do a series about SHIELD and, literally, a day or two after that they said, “Oh, by the way, there’s a movie coming up that will affect your show.” Whedon: “Here, read this script.” Tancharoen: “Read this script, and you’ll see what we’re talking about.” Was there ever a discussion of whether or not you guys would have to play by those rules, or was it always a foregone conclusion? Whedon: The great thing about the Marvel Universe is that it’s one universe. So, that’s the thing that makes it exciting. And that’s the opportunity we were given. And so this was obviously something we would have to incorporate. Right away, we saw both the challenges it posed and the opportunities it would bring. Q&A: 'Agents of SHIELD' EPs Respond to Critics: Don't Expect a Marvel Movie Every Week The disbanding of SHIELD is an event that it would seem there’s no going back from. Is there a way to still do the kind of procedural stories we saw earlier in this first season. Tancharoen: Now that there’s sort of the overall big bad that’s revealed, there’s differently a procedural approach to taking down those factions that exist within SHIELD. Whedon: It obviously is a game-changer. But people will have to tune in to see exactly how the game is changed. Clearly, this will have to change Coulson’s mandate. He's no longer going to be investigating weird stuff... Whedon: Coulson’s already had a rough year. The organization that he devoted his life to has lied to him. He’s always known that secrets are a big part of it but he started to pay a price for that. This is a heavy blow. One, it’s a huge punch he’ll have to roll with in some way. We had exploring the affect it would have on him and other members of the team. Winter Soldier is the first Marvel movie that didn’t have Coulson in it. Do you have a sense of when Coulson will reintroduce himself to the Avengers, or is that just waiting for Avengers: Age of Ultron? Tancharoen: That’s always a possibility. There’s also the possibility of other characters from our show having a place in a Marvel film. Right now, our show is designed to stand on its own, with Coulson at the center. With everything that happened in Captain America 2 we are dealing with details and the personal and emotional fallout. That’s the great thing about the Marvel Universe: you can always interweave at some point. Not many, if any shows, have gone through this kind of radical change. What there anything you looking at for guidance? Any playbooks you wanted to get a peek at to see how that handled? Whedon: We were sort of doing something new. Integrating with films is something I don’t know if any TV show has done to the extent we are and plan to. The thing that’s so fun about Marvel is the thing that makes it very challenging and why it’s been successful and they’ve met that challenge with a lot of foresight. They’ve been really creative in the way that they’ve slowly built this thing that’s all tied together. Now, we are a part of that, but we’re also telling stories every week. I don’t know if there was an example to follow. We just try and keep in communication with features and try to tell our own stories that live on their own but also can be reflected and enhanced by the films. Tancharoen: We’ve always said that the movies are about the big, giant crushing of buildings, and our television show is the opportunity to tell the stories of the people whose buildings are being crushed. Given the size and sweep of this change, is there anything about the show as we know it that’s sacred? Is there anything immune to the fallout? Whedon: It’ll still be 43 minutes long. Tancharoen: On Tuesdays at 8. Whedon: "Nothing is sacred" is an important thing, so there’s jeopardy at all times. Tancharoen: It’s safe to say that there will be a shift. What’s the most exciting part of all this? Whedon: We’ve been very excited about this part of the season for a very long time, and we’re excited it’s all gonna air back-to-back. Tancharoen: I think it’s thrilling for us for people to finally be able to see it. I mean, we’ve known about this from the outset. The whole season was built towards this. We started very standalone, planting seeds, and that will pay off in the back half. Everything was sort of shaped and structured for this part of the season, for this link-up with the film, so these last six episodes, we’re really thrilled for people to see.

Weather Channel CEO David Kenny The three-month blackout comes to an end on Wednesday, as the network gets a small increase in compensation and the provider guarantees afternoons will be free of reality shows. The stormy relationship between DirecTV and the Weather Channel has cleared. our editor recommends Weather Channel will return to the satellite provider on Wednesday, after being off the service since late mid-January. The break was followed by advertising and press releases in which the two sides blasted each other for their positions. After several weeks of behind the scenes talks, DirecTV has agreed to a small increase in the subscriber fees it pays for the channel (currently around 13 cents per month per subscriber, according to SNL Kagan), said a source. DirecTV, with about 20 million subscribers, had originally sought to reduce the amount it paid. The Weather Channel, for its part, has agreed to move a block of afternoon reality programming to the evening, and guarantees the day time will now be dedicated to live weather-related programming. As part of the pact, DirecTV subscribers will now be able to watch The Weather Channel’s video programming on smart phones, tablets and other devices at home or when they are traveling about. Weather Channel has been trying to revamp its programming recently to add more appointment programming – including reality shows. It also recently added a morning show with former Good Morning America anchor Sam Champion, which got off to a rocky start in the ratings. “Our apologies to DirecTV and their customers for the disruption of our service and for initiating a public campaign,” said Weather Company CEO David Kenny in a statement. “Our viewers deserve better than a public dispute and we pledge to reward their loyalty with exceptional programming and more weather focused news.” “It’s a shame these disputes are played out on a public stage,” said Dan York, DairecTV’s chief content officer, “but I’m pleased that we’ve been able to work together with The Weather Channel in a way that will benefit everyone. I know this was frustrating for many of our customers but their patience was ultimately reward with a better product.” DirecTV will now also carry WeatherNation , which it had used to replace The Weather Channel. A week ago DirecTV announced a long-term deal to carry WeatherNation. The Weather Channel is owned by a group that includes NBC Universal (Comcast) and private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital.

hat was the message during the opening State of the Industry presentation at the annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium: as cell phone cameras proliferate, so do problems of privacy, copyright, libel and more. On the heels of Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar selfies, the hot topic during Friday's opening presentation of the UCLA Entertainment Symposium was the legal issues presented by such high-profile pictures. "We're headed for a time when around-the-world live video networks are viable," says Tom Wolzien, a media consultant and former producer and news executive at NBC News. "When everybody has a camera … when every story could include copyrighted material, libel … only one thing is positively clear. Only one group is assured, even guaranteed employment in that live-camera world and it is, ready." "The lawyers!" responded an audience filled with members of the legal profession. In a world where Wolzien estimates 91 percent of people will have smartphones, there are numerous questions about he tricky terrain ahead: What happens when you take a picture of a copyrighted work of art, of children at play, of strangers who happen to be in the frame when you shoot that selfie? When the transmission of those photos goes worldwide, how to you deal with the laws in all the different countries where the images may be seen? Who is a journalist deserving of protections offered to the media in some places -- such as shield laws -- and who is just somebody taking pictures and sharing them worldwide? Wolzien noted under the reigning law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the ISP that provides the worldwide distribution platform is not responsible. However, he added, if your rights are being infringed, you can demand they take down the content. But that may not happen until long after the words and pictures are out. Noting over one billion smartphones were shipped last year -- almost all containing cameras and transmission capacity -- even the definition of piracy is changing. Wolzien says his research shows physical piracy of DVD's, for instance, is down, but it has been replaced by greatly expanded distribution of pirated content online. "Now," he says, "even the pirates are getting pirated." Drawing on a wide range of resources and his own analysis, Wolzien provided a snapshot of media today and tried to put it in modern context. He said that despite what you hear and read, people still watch a lot of television. He said time shifting live TV is something mostly done by people from 25 to 34 who have established households. Web video skews a little younger, mobile even younger and games are still mostly consumed by kids. He added that in the U.S. there are still about 110 million people who never watch streamed TV, such as Netflix or Amazon. Those who stream do watch about 10 times more TV than the rest of the population. One shift has been in advertising -- which, according to Wolzien, is at its lowest level as a percentage of gross domestic product in 50 years. He said advertising overall on TV, the Web and in print was up in 2013 by about 2 percent. That breaks down, says Wolzien, to about 40 percent spent on TV, 20 percent digital, 20 percent print and the rest on radio, mobile and other things. His analysis is that the adjustments in advertising reflect a change from what we traditionally call advertising to something more like product placement. "The real question here," says Wolzien, "is whether this is some sort of temporary drop or is what we're actually seeing is a shift of advertising dollars flowing to the Web not as advertising but as advertising in marketing."

CANNES – It was the tweet heard around the world, and now Publicis CEO Maurice Levy has valued Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscar selfie at between $800 million and $1 billion, he told a crowd at MIPTV. our editor recommends Levy’s Publicis Groupe, the Paris-based global advertising and marketing behemoth, handles international marketing for Samsung. He valued the Oscar photo of host DeGeneres with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey and others at the large sum because of its massive sharing on social media. The tweet was seen by 37 million people worldwide, according to Twitter numbers. In contrast, 43 million viewers tuned into the broadcast to see the Samsung snap. Levy said that the product placement was handled by his team. During the TV confab, Levy also addressed the merging of advertising and television production to the assembled producers and buyers. Publicis created a film-like three-and-a-half minute commercial for luxury brand Cartier that aired only once on France’s TF1 but was viewed more than 60 million times on YouTube. At a time when traditional TV networks are bleeding ad money, numbers like that hurt. He called television production and advertising production “faux amis” – French for “false friends” – and said the crossover is simply more transparent now than it was before. “Producers and directors have their independence and they do their work in their way, but at the same time we see a lot of directors that are doing TV series or movies for the big screen who are directing advertising. There is a long list of great directors that have shot commercials. We’ve always had that kind of relationship without entering into each other’s space,” he said. “But today we are co-producers and sometimes executive producers and all this is for the brand, for our clients.” Not that it is all so bleak. Both advertisers and television producers are facing common challenges as the fight for eyeballs and figure out how to reach consumers that divide their time among multiple devices. “I don’t think the world is an ‘or,” he said, as content consumers spend more time with one screen or another. With creative content coming from both advertising and television production “the world is an ‘and.’” He added: “There is an infinite number of possibilities with interactive.”