In an unsurprising move, Disney‘s upcoming streaming service won’t feature R-Rated content. As more and more companies seek to compete with Amazon and Netflix, a variety of streaming services have cropped up. CBS has been particularly successful with theirs thanks to Star Trek: Discovery, but in 2019 Disney will launch their own version. Disney’s streaming service will cost substantially less than Netflix according to the company, fitting as it will only offer a limited pool of content. Then again, Disney’s many acquisitions over the years mean they have a lot to pull from. Disney will have over 8,000 ABC TV episodes alone, and that’s not factoring in things from Disney XD, Freeform, and other networks they own. Not to mention, all the Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars content that Disney has access to. On the latter front, we learned earlier this week that Disney is developing multiple Star Wars shows for the streaming site, including word that a live-action series is finally on the way. And while fans hope that means a more mature take on the galaxy far, far away, things won’t be getting too adult. In an unsurprising move, Disney‘s upcoming streaming service won’t feature R-Rated content. As more and more companies seek to compete with Amazon and Netflix, a variety of streaming services have cropped up. CBS has been particularly successful with theirs thanks to Star Trek: Discovery, but in 2019 Disney will launch their own version. Disney’s streaming service will cost substantially less than Netflix according to the company, fitting as it will only offer a limited pool of content. Then again, Disney’s many acquisitions over the years mean they have a lot to pull from. Disney will have over 8,000 ABC TV episodes alone, and that’s not factoring in things from Disney XD, Freeform, and other networks they own. Not to mention, all the Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars content that Disney has access to. On the latter front, we learned earlier this week that Disney is developing multiple Star Wars shows for the streaming site, including word that a live-action series is finally on the way. And while fans hope that means a more mature take on the galaxy far, far away, things won’t be getting too adult. The news that the Marvel-Netflix shows will stay where they are is likely heartening for fans worried about getting yet another subscription service. It should also quiet fears that Disney will lighten that content at all. The big question, however, is how this affects the Fox content that could soon come under the Disney umbrella. We’ve heard Disney wants to make Deadpool sequels, so there’s no plans of stopping the Merc with the Mouth. Likely, that means his films would still hit theaters as-is and then land on Hulu afterwards. By doing so, Disney could maintain their brand image on their namesake streaming service but still profit off of movies and shows on Hulu. The report reaffirms that a Star Wars series will be part of the TV launch of Disney’s service, as will a new live-action Marvel show. ABC has failed to move forward on a number of MCU shows so far, and it could be that Marvel and Disney are waiting to premiere them digitally next year. Assuming darker contain will remain on Netflix (or join Runaways on Hulu), we could see lighter fare aimed at a younger audience be generated on the streaming site. The strongest possibility is the New Warriors show, which recently lost its home at Freeform but is still in production. Hopefully, we should have some more concrete details on the service soon.

Disney’s live-action The Sword in the Stone remake is among the projects that will debut as Original Movies through Disney’s streaming service, when the platform formally launches in 2019. The Mouse House’s as yet unnamed streaming service will serve as direct competition for Netflix, offering original content from not only Disney and its affiliates (Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Pixar), but also the properties that the company is in the process of acquiring from Fox. Disney has already confirmed that its digital service’s original television content will include live-action Marvel and Star Wars TV shows, among other branded projects (specifically, a Monsters, Inc. TV series). Similar to Netflix, the bulk of Disney’s streaming content in the beginning will be previously-released movies and television shows, including upwards of 8,000 episodes of ABC TV episodes that have aired over the past couple of decades. The Mouse House also plans to release four to five original movies for its streaming service every year, in addition to five original TV series that will cost as little as $25-35 million or as much as $100 million per 10-episode season, depending on the nature of the show. As for the service’s original movies, they are expected to fall in either the mid-range or lower end of the production budget pool. According to Deadline, the list of projects actively being developed as Original Movies for Disney’s streaming service include a Pirates of the Caribbean-esque Don Quixote adaptation penned by Hunger Games screenwriter Bill Ray; a Lady and the Tramp re-telling based on Disney’s classic 1955 animated movie of the same name; Togo, a true story inspired sled dog drama that was formerly titled Togo and Seppala, and is being directed by Ericson Core (who also helmed Disney’s 2006 sports memoir Invincible); Stargirl, a film directed by Julia Hart (who appeared in Disney’s Tuck Everlasting) that may be based on the Jerry Spinelli YA novel of the same name; and The Paper Magician, based on Charlie N. Holmberg’s historical fantasy book series. Deadline is also reporting that the Disney streaming service’s original movies slate will include two films that are already in post-production and were previously slated for a theatrical release. The films in question are Magic Camp, the fantasy comedy about a… magical camp that was directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls, Freaky Friday) and Noelle, the Christmas-themed comedy that was previously titled Nicole and stars Anna Kendrick as Santa Claus’ daughter. Other developing projects destined for the streaming service include Tom McCarthy’s Timmy Failure, a 3 Men and a Baby remake, and the live-action Sword and the Stone. While Disney’s live-action remakes of its classic animated filmography have proven extremely lucrative for the studio thus far, the news that Sword in the Stone is heading to the company’s streaming service instead of theaters makes sense, in the wake of reports that Ridley Scott is directing The Merlin Saga for the Mouse House. With Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) attached to direct, The Sword in the Stone should be a far cry from Scott’s own Arthurian retelling and will further help to entice people to sign up for Disney’s streaming service when it goes live. Smaller films like Noelle should also have an easier time standing out, now that they won’t have to compete with Disney’s biggest tentpoles and franchise releases for attention in theaters.

Character descriptions for season 2 of The Punisher may tease a very dark story for Frank Castle. Netflix and Marvel found success once again with The Punisher, but this time it was outside of their original plan. After fans reacted so positively to Jon Bernthal’s performance as the anti-hero, the Punisher, in Daredevil season 2, Netflix ordered a spinoff series that debuted late last year. Originally intended for a surprise launch after New York Comic-Con, the series – that heavily revolves around gun control – was pushed in light of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Once The Punisher did hit the streaming service, the results were as positive as all parties could’ve hoped for. Netflix didn’t waste much time in renewing The Punisher season 2. The series’ second season is slated to stay in New York, and production is expected to start sometime in 2018. While it is still early in the development process, hints at season two’s story may now be available. That Hashtag Show has revealed new details about The Punisher‘s second season thanks to a series of new character descriptions. According to the breakdowns, The Punisher is looking to cast the roles of Annie Beir, Kim Davis, and Melvin Skelling. These names are likely not the official names and rather used just for the purposes of auditions, however. Annie is a 16 year old described as “someone who is used to the streets and is both scrappy and aware of her environment.” Kim is a mid-30s female series regular therapist, and open to any ethnicity. Melvin is an early-30s honest detective, once again open to any ethnicity. Based on these descriptions, That Hashtag Show theorizes season 2 could be an adaption of The Slavers comic storyline. While the story speculation isn’t confirmed, the additional characters show that Punisher will be expanding its cast for season 2. The series still has several important characters from the first season around, and it even set up Ben Barnes’ Billy Russo fully becoming Jigsaw. They likely could’ve pulled a story together out of their existing pieces, but the potential adaption of this storyline could take Frank and his series further into a dark world. Garth Ennis’ The Slavers storyline sees Frank save the life of a young girl and, in doing so, leads him to discover a prostitution ring in New York run by Vera Konstantin and Cristu Bulat – a Romanian power couple. Annie’s description matches up with the young girl (Viorica) that Frank saves in the story, while Kim could be the show’s take on social worker Jen Cooke, who Frank works with to learn more about the ring. Melvin, on the other hand, is not part of this comic arc and is rather believed to be a stand-in name for Detective Martin Soap. After dealing with gun violence, PTSD, vigilantism, and more in season one, Punisher taking on sex slaves and trafficking could be the next important issue for the series to tackle. Frank has already expressed his feelings on the matter in Daredevil season 2 when a pawn shop owner offered him pornography of young girls. The show insinuated a massive beatdown was in the owner’s immediate future, so season 2 could build on that thread to show Frank become a hero to many more people. That is, if this is the story season 2 will tell.

Following up on reports that Joaquin Phoenix is in talks to play The Joker, fan artist BossLogic has put together an image of what the actor could look like as the Clown Prince of Crime. It’s been about six months since it was first reported that director Todd Phillips was developing an origin movie for Batman’s archenemy. Understandably, the news came as quite a shock for the DC fanbase. The Joker is notorious for his mysterious background; he’s perhaps the biggest comic book character around that doesn’t have a canonized origin story. On top of that, DC seemingly already had an actor lined up to play the character for the foreseeable future in Jared Leto, whose debut in Suicide Squad had hit theaters less than a year before the announcement. It was a head-scratcher, to say the least. In September, it was confirmed that Phillips’ Joker project would indeed be separate from the DCEU, and that it could start filming as early as this year. These scoops arrived a few weeks after it was reported that Leonardo DiCaprio was Warner Bros’ top choice for the role, though that always seemed like a longshot at best. The latest reports suggesting that Phoenix is a contender for the purple suit also claim that Leo has met with Phillips “about four times” in recent months, so there’s no clear frontrunner as of yet. Joaquin Phoenix’s name being bandied about for a comic book role is nothing new, of course. The three-time Oscar nominee has been linked to the Joker’s arch-nemesis Batman on several occasions, he was considered for Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman, and he was once rumored to be in final negotiations to play Doctor Strange in the MCU before ultimately turning the part down. Phoenix’s resistance to superhero films and Hollywood blockbusters as a whole has become well-known, but if he were ever going to sign on for a comic book role, a (presumably) one-off appearance as the Joker would make a lot of sense. In that regard, popular digital artist BossLogic has delivered his take on what Phoenix might look like as the craziest clown in comics. BossLogic’s done some fine work here all-around, imagining a Joaquin Phoenix Joker that sports several gnarly battle scars and some seriously intimidating eyes. The Clown Prince of Crime’s hair is reminiscent of the look Heath Ledger rocked in The Dark Knight, albeit with a hairline that’s more in line with the villain’s classic widow’s peak. The smoking gun is a particularly nice touch. Would you be onboard for a Joaquin Phoenix Joker film if the character looked like this? How does the design compare to that of Jared Leto in your opinion? Let us know in the comments.

A former executive officer of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival is the latest to come under fire in South Korea's #MeToo movement. A former programmer for the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BiFan) has accused a high-ranking official who previously worked at the leading Asian genre event of sexual misconduct. Yu Ji-seon opened up to the South Korean press on Thursday that a former executive officer of BiFan and respected figure in the local film community sexually harassed her in October 2013. "We were in the attendance of other people when he complimented me about how lovely I looked in my jeans, and nonchalantly touched my hips," Yu told Channel A News. In accordance with South Korean media and human rights standards, the identity of sexual assault victims is usually protected under anonymity. Yu went public on her own accord. Yu said she filed a complaint with Bucheon metropolitan government, the main host and financier of the festival, but things stopped short of an apology from the ex-official, whose identity has yet to be revealed. Yu, who had worked for over 10 years for BiFan, said she was subsequently fired from the festival in September 2016 for "political reasons," claiming that the current execs were closely acquainted with her alleged sexual aggressor. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations has expired for the sexual misconduct, but Yu says she has been taking part in a prolonged legal battle during the past two years against the former officer for defamation. South Korea's own equivalent of the #MeToo movement has been gathering strength, both on and off-line and across various sectors. In the past month alone, a female public prosecutor came forth about being groped by a senior official and then getting demoted when she complained, while writer Choi Young-mi's poem titled "Goemul (Monster)" called public attention to Ko Un, a literary giant who had been nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize but whose notorious predatory behavior toward young female writers had largely been kept under wraps. On Friday, award-winning director Lee Hyun-ju was also ousted from the local film community after she was found guilty of sexually assaulting a colleague.

J.J. Abrams has teased the upcoming Cloverfield 4 – AKA Overlord – will be a “crazy” ride. Fans of the series were in for a shock at the beginning of this week, as within two hours of the trailer being released for The Cloverfield Paradox during the Super Bowl, the movie was available to stream on Netflix. Paradox began life as the God Particle before Abrams decided it would fit into his Cloverfield anthology universe quite well. The film had been cloaked in mystery prior to release and delayed multiple times, with some reports suggesting the movie had narrative issues. The Cloverfield Paradox’s sudden release ensured huge publicity and was considered a bold marketing move. That said, the movie has received a mostly negative critical reception, focused on its lack of suspense, patchy screenplay and its obvious use of reshoots to make it connect to the Cloverfield universe. The movie would most likely have proven a box-office dud had it been released in theatres, but the savvy decision to send it to Netflix instead guaranteed high viewing figures, and it was apparently in profit by the end of the first day. While the movie may have disappointed many fans, they won’t have to wait long until the next Cloverfield sequel arrives. Cloverfield 4 – which may or may not be called Overlord – is arriving October 2018, and in an interview with Digital Spy producer J.J. Abrams spoke about the fun of surprising viewers with Paradox, and his excitement for the next film. It didn’t really feel like it was any fun to release [The Cloverfield Paradox] with everybody knowing that it was coming. Could we possibly do this and keep it a secret and release the thing in the way we did? That felt to me like that’s the spirit of these movies, that’s the spirit of the series. So to talk about what the next one is and what’s going to happen sort of feels counter-intuitive. Overlord … first of all, it’s something that I can’t wait for you to see cause the director, Julius Avery, has done an amazing job on it. But the specifics, you know, we should wait and see. But that’s really a crazy movie. There are few details available for Overlord at the moment, which will be set during World War II, and feature soldiers fighting against supernatural forces unleashed by a Nazi experiment. Wyatt Russell and Jovan Adepo lead the cast. Just like The Cloverfield Paradox and 10 Cloverfield Lane before it, the movie began life as a separate movie before it became part of the series. It will be interesting to see what unique marketing gimmick Abrams will employ for Overlord, which has become a trademark of the Cloverfield universe. The mysterious teaser for the original movie – which didn’t even reveal the title – sent the internet into a hysterical frenzy trying to figure out what it was, and after years of silence, the sudden announcement of 10 Cloverfield Lane in 2016 earned the sequel a lot of attention. Paradox’s Netflix release is in keeping with that approach, but Cloverfield 4 has been confirmed as a theatrical release so it can’t repeat the same tactic. It will also be interesting to see if the reception to The Cloverfield Paradox has affected the brand. The first two movies were both critical and commercial successes, but Paradox’s mediocre reception may have rubbed some of the sheen off the series for moviegoers. Nonetheless, if nothing else Cloverfield 4’s “crazy” premise at least makes it sound like an entertaining ride.

The official Deadpool 2 trailer has arrived, introducing Josh Brolin’s Cable and taking a shot at Justice League in the process. In typical Deadpool fashion, the early offerings from the marketing team for his sequel has been less than conventional. There was the Thanksgiving themed Deadpool 2 poster that sparked speculation about the first footage debuting soon, and that it did. However, the first teaser for Deadpool 2 took inspiration from painter Bob Ross, and didn’t show much of anything from the movie in the process. Fox has since moved Deadpool 2‘s release up two weeks, meaning the need for a real look at the sequel was even closer. Reports eventually surfaced that the trailer would be attached to Black Panther in theaters, but that it would actually debut ahead of time. That highly anticipated time is now here. Fox officially released Deadpool 2‘s official trailer today. The trailer (featured at the top of this post) contains plenty of Ryan Reynold’s pitch-perfect Deadpool humor. But, what is likely to be the biggest takeaway from the trailer is that it gives fans their first proper taste of Josh Brolin’s portrayal as the time-traveling mutant Cable. After holding Brolin’s Cable out of the first teaser, it is exciting to see him get a trailer that is almost solely focused on his arrival. Cable is a fan-favorite character from the Marvel comics, and seeing the dynamic between him and Wade Wilson on the big screen has been highly anticipated ever since Deadpool‘s post-credits scene. Now that he’s taking the focus here, he gets plenty of standout moments in this trailer. His action scenes look intense – thanks to Atomic Blonde director David Leitch – and the creative team appears to have nailed his power set. In typical Deadpool fashion however, they couldn’t let the trailer play out in traditional fashion. Deadpool jumps in early on to complain about the unfinished VFX, only so he can jump into a Toy Story inspired standoff. Once the trailer does kick into high gear, most of the footage appears to come from one section of the film. Cable is shown fighting DMC agents – believed to be an adaptation of the Mutant Response Division – while Deadpool appears to be a prisoner of theirs, possibly along with Domino (Zazie Beetz). All in all, the trailer is sure to only raise the excitement for fans now that Cable is unveiled and more story beats surface. Thankfully, the wait for Deadpool 2 is shorter than ever thanks to its new release date. MORE: DISNEY CEO WANTS TO MAKE MORE DEADPOOL SEQUELS Source: Fox

Milla Jovovich is starring in the sci-fi action thriller Hummingbird, with her husband Paul W.S. Anderson now revising the original script draft written by John McClain. The project marks the first creative collaboration for Jovivich and Anderson since they completed their run on the Resident Evil movie franchise with last year’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Anderson is currently developing another video game adaptation in the form of Monster Hunter, which is also positioned to serve as his first post-Resident Evil directorial effort. Hummingbird is being helmed by directing duo Fredrik Akerström and Marcus Kryler, who are no strangers to video game fare themselves – having previously worked on the cinematic elements of Battlefield 1. The Swedish filmmaking pair also directed the 2013 short sci-fi/horror film Reset, and became attached to helm a feature-length version of their short for Paramount back in January. It appears that Hummingbird is next for Akerström and Kryler on their to-do list though, seeing as the project has already entered the casting stage of development. Deadline is reporting that Jovovich is now set to star in Hummingbird, with filming on the project scheduled to get underway this summer. She replaces Olivia Munn as the movie’s headliner, after Munn previously took the spot vacated by Zoe Saldana (who had to pass on the project due to a scheduling conflict with the now in production Avatar sequels). However, Jovovich’s casting is expected to stick, as further evidenced by Anderson’s involvement as screenwriter. Hummingbird revolves around a female black ops assassin who sets out on a journey of self discovery, upon learning the truth about what she is and where she comes from. The film’s producers have already compared the project to Luc Besson’s sci-fi thriller Lucy and the Matt Damon-led Jason Bourne movies, with respect to both the tone and content. Hummingbird will also serve as Jovovich’s return to playing action heroes, following her more dramatic performance in Rob Reiner’s Iraq Invasion drama Shock and Awe, and her villainous turn as the Blood Queen in Neil Marshall’s upcoming Hellboy movie reboot. Jovovich herself is a modern action movie icon thanks to her roles as Alice in the Resident Evil movies and Leeloo in Besson’s sci-fi film The Fifth Element, both of which are super-powered warriors in the same vein as her Hummingbird character. Based on Jovovich and Anderson’s involvement alone, it seems safe to assume that Hummingbird will be in the vein of their previous collaborations in other respects (big on kinetic action, thin on plot and thematic substance) – something that also ought to come as welcome news to their fans. MORE: RESIDENT EVIL MOVIE REBOOT IS ALREADY MOVING FORWARD Hummingbird does not have an official release date yet. More as the story develops. Source: Deadline

Following a landmark trial last May, a founder of streaming site Swefilmer was jailed for an unprecedented three years, longer than any defendant even in the Pirate Bay case. With an appeal hearing just weeks away, he's just been hit with a fresh $3m damages claim. "This is about organized crime and grossly criminal individuals who earned huge sums on our and others' content," the plaintiffs explain. After being founded more than half a decade ago, Swefilmer grew to become Sweden’s most popular movie and TV show streaming site. It was only a question of time before authorities stepped in to bring the show to an end. In 2015, a Swedish operator of the site in his early twenties was raided by local police. A second man, Turkish and in his late twenties, was later arrested in Germany. The pair, who hadn’t met in person, appeared before the Varberg District Court in January 2017, accused of making more than $1.5m from their activities between November 2013 and June 2015. The prosecutor described Swefilmer as “organized crime”, painting the then 26-year-old as the main brains behind the site and the 23-year-old as playing a much smaller role. The former was said to have led a luxury lifestyle after benefiting from $1.5m in advertising revenue. The sentences eventually handed down matched the defendants’ alleged level of participation. While the younger man received probation and community service, the Turk was sentenced to serve three years in prison and ordered to forfeit $1.59m. Very quickly it became clear there would be an appeal, with plaintiffs represented by anti-piracy outfit RightsAlliance complaining that their 10m krona ($1.25m) claim for damages over the unlawful distribution of local movie Johan Falk: Kodnamn: Lisa had been ruled out by the Court. With the appeal hearing now just a couple of weeks away, Swedish outlet Breakit is reporting that media giant Bonnier Broadcasting has launched an action of its own against the now 27-year-old former operator of Swefilmer. According to the publication, Bonnier’s pay-TV company C More, which distributes for Fox, MGM, Paramount, Universal, Sony and Warner, is set to demand around 24m krona ($3.01m) via anti-piracy outfit RightsAlliance. “This is about organized crime and grossly criminal individuals who earned huge sums on our and others’ content. We want to take every opportunity to take advantage of our rights,” says Johan Gustafsson, Head of Corporate Communications at Bonnier Broadcasting. C More reportedly filed its lawsuit at the Stockholm District Court on January 30, 2018. At its core are four local movies said to have been uploaded and made available via Swefilmer. “C More would probably never even have granted a license to [the operator] to make or allow others to make the films available to the public in a similar way as [the operator] did, but if that had happened, the fee would not be less than 5,000,000 krona ($628,350) per film or a total of 20,000,000 krona ($2,513,400),” C More’s claim reads. Speaking with Breakit, lawyer Ansgar Firsching said he couldn’t say much about C More’s claims against his client. “I am very surprised that two weeks before the main hearing [C More] comes in with this requirement. If you open another front, we have two trials that are partly about the same thing,” he said. Firsching said he couldn’t elaborate at this stage but expects his client to deny the claim for damages. C More sees things differently. “Many people live under the illusion that sites like Swefilmer are driven by idealistic teens in their parents’ basements, which is completely wrong. This is about organized crime where our content is used to generate millions and millions in revenue,” the company notes. The appeal in the main case is set to go ahead February 20th. Source: Torrentfreak.com

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A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, BMG Rights Management (US) LLC et al. v. Cox Enterprises Inc. et al., case number 16-1972, provides significant direction on issues relating to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and online piracy. Three points are particularly noteworthy. 1.A “repeat infringer” policy, alone, is not sufficient The DMCA provides a “safe harbor” that shields Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from potentially significant liability they would otherwise face over infringing behavior by their subscribers. However, the availability of the safe harbor depends on compliance with several rules, including, the ISP must “adopt and reasonably implement” a “repeat infringer policy” that provides for the termination of users' accounts “in appropriate circumstances.” In the case decided by the Fourth Circuit, BMG Rights Management, a music publisher, sued Cox on the theory that the ISP had violated that rule, causing the company to lose the protection of the safe harbor. BMG said Cox had ignored millions of notices about users who repeatedly shared the publisher’s songs illegally. The Fourth Circuit agreed, holding that Cox “failed to implement its [‘repeat infringer’] policy in any consistent or meaningful way — leaving it essentially with no policy.” The Court wrote extensively on the problems with Cox’s policy, including that Cox "made every effort” to avoid terminating subscribers, and, until 2012, never once terminated a subscriber without quickly reactivating them. The Court wrote, “An ISP cannot claim the protections of the DMCA safe harbor provisions merely by terminating customers as a symbolic gesture before indiscriminately reactivating them within a short timeframe.” Although the Court’s decision provides much insight into the type of behavior that will cause ISPs to lose the protection of the DMCA’s “safe harbor,” it does not provide guidance as to what less egregious conduct might also cause problems. 2.A "repeat infringer" is not an "adjudicated infringer" The Fourth Circuit’s ruling also provides an answer to what constitutes a “repeat infringer." Cox argued that the only “repeat infringers” that an ISP must terminate under the DMCA are those who have been repeatedly “adjudicated” to have infringed, as opposed to merely repeatedly accused by a rights holder. The Fourth Circuit disagreed, saying that both the language and legislative history of the DMCA foreclosed the idea that “repeat infringers” only means people who have been found liable. The Court pointed to a passage in the legislative history saying that people who “abuse their access to the internet through disrespect for the intellectual property rights of others” should face a “realistic threat of losing” Internet access. Per the Court, the passage “does not suggest that they should risk losing internet access only once they have been sued in court and found liable for multiple instances of infringement.” Although the Court’s ruling answers the question of what constitutes a “repeat infringer,” it leaves open other questions about what ISPs must do to comply with the DMCA requirement. It is likely that, if credible evidence exists that a user has repeatedly infringed third-party copyrights, the ISP will need to have a policy in place to ensure such customers are denied internet access. 3.Contributory liability requires more than negligence Without the protection of the DMCA’s safe harbor, an ISP would be subject to claims of contributory liability for the infringing conduct of its users. In Cox’s case, the jury found Cox liable for contributory infringement and awarding BMG $25 million in infringement damages. The Fourth Circuit vacated that verdict and specified precisely what copyright owners need to prove to sustain similar secondary infringement claims. The Court rejected the idea of contributory liability based on negligence, i.e., that the ISP “should have known” its subscribers were infringing copyrights. Referring to the Supreme Court’s decisions in MGM Studios v. Grokster and Global-Tech v. SEB (a patent case), the Court noted the Supreme Court’s holding that contributory infringement only occurs when one “intentionally” induces or encourages infringement. According to the Fourth Circuit, “We are persuaded that the Global-Tech rule developed in the patent law context, which held that contributory liability can be based on willful blindness but not on recklessness or negligence, is a sensible one in the copyright context.” In light of the Fourth Circuit’s decision, contributory liability claims against ISPs could be more difficult to prove, factually.

The CRTC’s Chris Seidl spoke at the House's Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Canada’s telecom watchdog took to a House of Commons committee to restate Canada’s existing net neutrality framework. The Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) executive director of telecommunications Chris Seidl spoke at a recent Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics meeting, to restate some of the CRTC’s past decisions on net neutrality. During his comments, Seidl lent some insight into the CRTC’s thought process for ensuring the perpetuity of Canadian net neutrality. Seidl specifically made reference to the Canadian Railway Act of 1906, arguing that the same common carriage thinking that applied to freight trains carrying cargo can be used to think about fibre optic cables carrying internet packet data. “It turns out that the same principles are effective whether we are referring to cargo transported on railway cars or data carried over telecommunications networks,” said Seidl. “It it important to keep in mind that net neutrality is focused on carriage rather content.” “We mention this because the broadly worded statutory provisions have stood the test of time and have allowed the CRTC the flexibility to address more modern concerns. They have been able to adapt to modern technology and needs, including net neutrality.” Seidl enumerated three specific decisions delivered by the CRTC to promote net neutrality in Canada. In 2009, the Commission established an internet traffic management framework that allowed the CRTC to determine compliance with the Telecommunications Act. In 2015, the Commission ruled that service providers could not use their influence to promote their own mobile television services over others in the marketplace. Finally, Seidl referenced the CRTC’s April 2017 differential pricing — zero rating — decision that determined that internet service providers (ISP) “should treat all data that flows across their networks equally.” “Our framework supports a fair marketplace in which ISPs compete on price, quality of service, data allowance and innovative service offerings,” said Seidl. The CRTC and FairPlay Canada Chris Seidl’s comments to the House’s information, privacy and ethics committee come in the wake of the formation of an anti-piracy coalition comprised of 25 different Canadian media companies. FairPlay Canada’s ultimate goal is to convince the CRTC to establish an independent anti-piracy agency to block access to websites determined to have infringed on Canadian copyright. A number of net neutrality advocates have spoken out against FairPlay Canada’s intentions, including internet and e-commerce law professor Michael Geist. It’s interesting to note that Seidl did specifically reference FairPlay Canada in his comments before the House committee. He asserted that he would not be able to answer the committee’s questions regarding FairPlay Canada because the Commission “cannot comment on that application or any other that is currently before the CRTC.” In spite of Seidl’s assertions, however, his comments can be interpreted to suggest that the Commission is currently satisfied with the country’s existing net neutrality framework, and that the CRTC isn’t looking to potentially change Canada’s existing legislation to give more power to ISPs and carriers. It must be noted, however, that Seidl did not explicitly make such a comment during his remarks. A CRTC spokesperson told MobileSyrup via email that the Commission’s net neutrality position “has developed through a series of decisions published in the past few years establishing that service providers should treat data equally to foster consumer choice, innovation and the free exchange of ideas.” “A free and open internet gives everyone a fair chance to innovate and for a vast array of content to be discovered by consumers,” said the spokesperson, via email. “A free and open internet also allows citizens to be informed and engage on issues of public concern without undue or inappropriate interference by those who operate those networks.” “Rather than offering subscribers selected content at different data usage prices, ISPs should be offering more data at lower prices. That way, subscribers can choose for themselves what content they want to consume.”

Hacking into a piece of hardware is a tough job but hackers find their way around it, hacking into Nintendo hardware is pretty difficult but it seems that hackers have pulled it off once again. The Nintendo Switch has been prone to hacking and here we have another incident where hackers were able to run Linux on the Nintendo Switch and hackers even claim that the exploit cannot be patched. While I am sure that Nintendo will do anything and everything in its power to patch this issue but if the claims are true and the bug cannot be patched then this will open doors to pirated games and this will affect sales of Nintendo Switch titles as well. The hacker made this exploit public on Twitter and you can check it out here. Piracy hit PS2 and Xbox 360 hard and I am sure that Nintendo does not want that for the Nintendo Switch. We will have to wait and see what Nintendo is going to do about this exploit and whether or not the issue can be resolved. While on the topic of Nintendo Switch we have insider information that the upcoming Madden and FIFA 19 will be available on the Nintendo Switch. This is something to look forward to and could be a major factor when deciding whether or not to get a Nintendo Switch. There is also a rumor that Ridge Racer 8 and Metroid Prime 4 be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch but as there is no confirmation from developers or Nintendo at this moment you should take this information with a grain of salt and not take it all to heart so soon.

Tracker's Name: BestMMATorrents (BMT) Genre: Sports Sign-up Link: http://www.bestmmatorrents.com/account-register.php Closing date: N/A Additional information: MMA tracker. Not sure if it's private or not but it needs a registration for downloading files.

Tracker's Name: TC-Boxing (TC) Genre: Sports Sign-up Link: http://tc-boxing.com/signup.php Closing date: N/A Additional information: Nice boxing tracker.

Tracker's Name: TGay Genre: Movies Sign-up Link: http://tgay.pro/profile.php?mode=register Closing date: N/A Additional information: RUSSIAN Private Torrent Tracker for LGBTQ MOVIES

Crackers have finally managed to break Assassin’s Creed Origins’ several layers of protections. Assassin’s Creed Origins on PC has proven very challenging to crack, compared to other modern titles that also use Denuvo. Denuvo, itself once considered unbreakable, was cracked days after release with many recent releases, but not Origins. With some exceptions, Denuvo is no longer being seen as the ultimate answer to piracy on PC. But then Origins came along and Ubisoft decided to use another layer of protection on top of Denuvo version 4.9, called VMProtect. Some claimed that the use of two anti-piracy measures results in higher than usual CPU usage, which hinders the game’s performance. Ubisoft denied the tools have any adverse effect on performance. Until today, Origins remained uncracked on PC. Over the weekend, Italian cracking group CPY revealed that it has cracked Assassin’s Creed Origins, and released the crack for anyone to use. Some on the comments claim to have run into issues with the crack, but these could be caused by other factors like hardware. In the past, some publishers would remove Denuvo from their games after the protection has been cracked, so the same could happen for Origins, though Ubisoft doesn’t typically do this.

New system to roll out today/early tomorrow depending on where you are. Having drank into the wee hours of January 1 during new year celebrations, I'd technically made an arse of the Jan Ban/Dry January before it'd even started. I thereafter made it to January 12, before succumbing to a boozy weekend because I've clearly got no willpower. Luckily for us, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer PUBG Corp is better dedicated to the cause. Instead of abstaining from alcohol, though, it's clamping down on cheaters—having banned one million rule-breaking players in January alone. That's according to Battleye, the anti-cheat analysis software that governs the battle royale shooter's servers. Taking to Twitter, it said: "We have banned over 1,044,000 PUBG cheaters in January alone, unfortunately things continue to escalate." This comes off the back of PUBG Corp's recent moves to block Steam family sharing, as well as its new and incoming "anti-cheat solution". More information on the latter can be found via this blog post, which explains programs that hook into the game's files will be blocked. One of the programs in question is the popular post-processing tool ReShade. "The new anti-cheat feature will block different helper programs that alter the graphics or aid in gameplay in some way," reads the PUBG blog. "What these programs have in common is that they all hook into our game and transform game files. Programs that are not used to gain an unfair advantage can also be blocked if they behave like cheats. "One of the popular programs that will be blocked is ReShade. You will not be banned for having it on system but you will no longer be able to play PUBG while it is installed. Please uninstall ReShade (or any other blocked program) and launch the game again. Some players may find that reinstalling PUBG is also necessary." PUBG's latest anti-cheat measures are expected to roll out today at 6pm PT/tomorrow at 2am GMT.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is due to receive a patch later today on PC that’ll implement the latest anti-cheat measures. Developer PUBG Corp previously detailed that the new tech has been developed internally. The main aim is to combat programs that hook into the game and alter game files in one way or another. This includes, but not limited to, things like Reshade, a popular tool used by many to increase colour saturation in PUBG for an easier time spotting enemies. PUBG Corp said that players must uninstall Reshade in order to play PUBG. Simply having it installed will prevent you from being able to launch the game. You may need to reinstall PUBG if it doesn’t work right away, too. But that’s not all that’s getting blocked, other software like Nvidia’s ShadowPlay, as well as video and audio capturing tools may be temporarily blocked. PUBG Corp said it’s working on refining the tech and will be slowly re-enabling benign apps. The update will hit live servers later today. At 6pm PT, 9pm ET, which is 2am UK on February 6. In other PUBG news, the game will no longer support Steam Family Sharing, and may ban players for removing or modifying game files.

Arnold Schwarzenegger will make his first dive into event television by teaming up with Amazon for the Western series Outrider. The star of The Terminator, Predator, Total Recall and other classic movies has held down only one prior regular television job, as host of NBC’s The New Celebrity Apprentice. That gig lasted only one year. A one-time Mr. Universe, Schwarzenegger in the early ’80s began building a movie career that would later become legendary. Schwarzenegger’s breakout came in 1982’s Conan the Barbarian, playing the titular mythic hero. Schwarzenegger would subsequently rise to become Hollywood’s most bankable action star. He branched out into comedy in 1988 with Twins, co-starring Danny DeVito. Schwarzenegger reached arguably the peak of his powers with 1991’s blockbuster sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day. However, his star would then decline slowly through a series of increasingly tired ’90s vehicles. In 2003 he suspended his movie career altogether so he could serve as governor of California. His stint as “Governator” ended in 2011 and he returned to his movie career. In recent years, Schwarzenegger has mixed attempts at legitimate dramatic roles with parts that deliberately spoof his action hero image. RELATED: ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER INTERESTED IN MAKING MORE TERMINATOR FILMS Schwarzenegger will now steer his career in a new direction, teaming up with Amazon for the Western Outrider. Variety reports that Schwarzenegger will also executive produce the event series together with Trey Callaway, Mark Montgomery and Mace Neufeld. Callaway and Mark Montgomery will also write. Incidentally, Amazon also plans a Conan the Barbarian TV series, though Schwarzenegger will not be coming back as the iconic character (as far as we know). Set in Oklahoma Indian Territory in the 1800s, Outrider follows a deputy who partners with a Federal Marshall (Schwarzenegger) to catch a famous outlaw. Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a Marshall in the Old West? It may sound like a case of insane miscasting, but that’s par for the course when it comes to Schwarzenegger. The actor has spent the majority of his career fighting the fact that he doesn’t make sense in most roles. And he almost always manages to sell it. All that being said, this sounds like one of the hardest sell-jobs of Schwarzenegger’s career. There’s actually a pretty good reason that Schwarzenegger has stayed away from traditional Westerns throughout his career. He’s been able to sell himself as a lot of things over the years – a spy, a “regular guy construction worker” who happens to be married to Sharon Stone, a Kindergarten Cop – but who can imagine Schwarzenegger as a cowboy? In his only prior Western role, opposite Kirk Douglas in The Villain, he played a deliberately comical doofus because nothing else would have been imaginable at the time. In the Outrider, it sounds like Schwarzenegger will play a legitimate dramatic Western figure – in other words, this time he’s Kirk Douglas. We’ll see if he can pull it off. MORE: ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER WILL FILM TRIPLETS AFTER TERMINATOR 6 Source: Variety

Taiwanese documentarian Hsin-yao Huang expands an earlier short into his first fiction feature. Two buddies on society's lower rungs live vicariously through the exploits of a superior in The Great Buddha +, Hsin-yao Huang's cheeky but not unserious fiction feature debut. An expansion of an earlier short called The Great Buddha (hence that typographically awkward plus sign), it has racked up Golden Horse awards and several festival plaudits on its way to Stateside art houses, where it will introduce many American cinephiles to a voice they'll hope to hear from again very soon. Set somewhere in the southern part of the island, the story's low-rent characters have names like Peanut and Sugar Apple. At the other end of the economic spectrum are men like Kevin Huang (Leon Dai), whose Western moniker seems to the rabble like something only the rich can afford. Kevin runs a business making giant metal statues of the Buddha, but spends much of his time cruising around in his luxury sedan, romancing younger women. While he's out, the middle-aged Pickle (Cres Chuang) watches over the shop and its grounds, often fighting his boredom by letting local scavenger Belly Button (Bamboo Chen) come in for a late meal. The two have an appealing Mutt & Jeff chemistry, quasi-innocents in a seedy world. Given how appreciative they are of the sticky porn mags Belly Button rescues from some trash heap — whoever took this photo, he marvels, should win the Nobel Prize — the voyeuristic novelty that will soon consume them seems tailor-made: They swipe the dashboard camera that Kevin has installed in his car, and start spending every night watching the footage saved on it — though the image onscreen may just show the road, the sound captures whatever mischief Kevin and that evening's date get up to inside the car. The men marvel at his sexual prowess, taking ages to realize how shoddily he's treating the women when he tires of them. Though Buddha is lensed in black and white, this dashcam footage is shown in color — a reference to the livelier world of the rich so obvious that even Belly Button gets it. Having introduced himself to viewers with a voiceover at the picture's start, Huang enjoys pointing things out to us — not in a condescending way, but as a considerate host would. When introducing a homeless character on the story's periphery, he lets us know the man will only have one line of dialogue; when he wonders aloud why a character is fond of a certain game, he lets the man address us directly to explain. Sometimes the characters acknowledge us even when the director isn't intervening. Remarkably, this frequent meta-movie humor takes nothing away from the film's serious aspects: the violent crime Pickle and Belly Button stumble upon; the loneliness of one of Kevin's abandoned girlfriends; the ambiguous commentary about religion, which seemingly always has a crime or a scam at its heart. Most importantly, the pic gets laughs out of the class system without being glib about its cruelties. The gulf between rich and poor clearly matters to Huang, who poignantly shows how poverty robs even the dead of dignity. "Birth is eight-tenths of destiny," Pickle sagely notes at one point, long before the film itself starts to admit how sad this fact is. By the time Huang catches up to Pickle, his film turning elegiac and rain-spattered, it's going to take a cosmic, Buddha-sized intervention to overcome entrenched privilege. Production companies: Cream Film Production, Mandarin Vision Distributor: Cheng Cheng Films Cast: Cres Chuang, Bamboo Chu-Sheng Chen, Leon Dai, Shao-Huai Chang, Kuo-Lin Ting, Na-Duo Lin Director-screenwriter: Hsin-yao Huang Producers: Mong-Hong Chung, Ju Feng Yeh Director of photography: Mong-Hong Chung Production designer: Shih-hao Chao Editor: Hsiu-hsiung Lai Composer: Sheng-Xiang Lin In Taiwanese 103 minutes

She will report to Mary Daly, Paramount's president of international theatrical marketing and worldwide home media entertainment. Paramount Pictures has tapped Liz West to serve as executive vp marketing communications for international theatrical marketing and worldwide home media entertainment. West most recent served as vp global publicity at Disney. At Paramount, she will report to Mary Daly, Paramount's president of international marketing and worldwide home media entertainment. In the newly created role, West will work closely with senior executive teams to drive worldwide key marketing initiatives, including digital and publicity campaigns for international territories. “As our slate expands and our business grows we are looking to make sure we have a strategic, lifecycle approach to our movies and integrated consumer-facing communications across these areas. Liz, who is a known strategist with the invaluable combination of both international theatrical and home entertainment experience, is the perfect executive to help lead these efforts," Daly said Tuesday in a statement. West will begin her new role at Paramount on Feb. 26.

Fede Alvarez is directing the Sony film, with Claire Foy in the starring role. Stephen Merchant has joined The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel The Girl in the Spider's Web. Claire Foy and Lakeith Stanfield are already on board to star and Fede Alvarez is directing the project, which Sony hopes will relaunch the film franchise, whose last installment was released in 2011. The Girl in the Spider’s Web is currently shooting in Berlin and Stockholm, and Sony is planning a Nov. 9 release. The film is adapted from the David Lagercrantz-penned fourth book in the Millennium series. The Girl in the Spider’s Web is also the first in the best-selling series to be produced into an English-language film in its initial adaptation. The previous installments in the series originated as Swedish-language films. Columbia executive vp David Beaubaire is overseeing the movie for Sony. Amy Pascal and Elizabeth Cantillon are producing with Scott Rudin and Yellow Bird. Merchant, featured in last year's Logan, is repped by WME.

The Marvel and Disney superhero pic opens Feb. 16. Critics so far are purring loudly over Black Panther, which boasted an early Rotten Tomatoes score of 100 percent after the first 55 reviews posted on Tuesday. The score could easily change, considering the Disney and Marvel Studios superhero pic doesn't debut in North American theaters until Feb. 16. By that time, more than 300 reviews are expected. If the aggregated score stays at 100 percent, Black Panther will become the first title in either the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the DC Extended Universe to earn the perfect score. Both Wonder Woman (DC) and Captain America: Civil War ranked at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes early in the review process, but ended up at 92 percent and 91 percent, respectively. Directed by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther alongside Lupita Nyong'o, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker and Andy Serkis. The movie is the 18th title in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One major tracking service shows Black Panther debuting to more than $130 million domestically over the long President's Day weekend, with many box-office observers putting that number closer to $150 million.

'The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle' is slated for an April 12, 2019, release. Selena Gomez is hopping on The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle. The Universal feature stars Robert Downey Jr. as the physician with the uncanny ability to talk to animals, one of which Gomez will voice. The platinum recording artist joins a voice cast that includes Spider-Man: Homecoming star Tom Holland, Emma Thompson and Ralph Fiennes. Along with Downey, Michael Sheen and Antonio Banderas will be starring in live-action roles. Stephen Gaghan (Traffic, Syriana) will direct from a script that he wrote (an earlier draft was done by Tom Shepherd). The story is based on the 1920s children’s books by Hugh Lofting. Joe Roth and Jeff Kirschenbaum (Alice in Wonderland) will produce via their Roth/Kirschenbaum Films shingle, alongside Susan Downey for Team Downey. Jon Mone and Lexi Barta will oversee production for the studio. The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle will begin production this month in London, and is slated for a April 12, 2019, release. Gomez, who acts as the executive producer on hit Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, can be heard in the third installment of the Hotel Transylvania franchise, due out this July. She is repped by WME, Lighthouse Management & Media and Ziffren Brittenham.