A new academic paper published in the Information Economics and Policy journal shows that piracy can help many artists to sell more music. Results from the peer-reviewed paper are consistent for both digital and physical sales and affect mid-tier artists. Top musicians are not so lucky, as they sell less. The debate over whether online piracy helps or hurts music sales has been dragging on for several decades now. The issue has been researched extensively with both positive and negative effects being reported, often varying based on the type of artist, music genre and media, among other variables. One of the more extensive studies was published this month in the peer-reviewed Information Economics and Policy journal, by Queen’s University economics researcher Jonathan Lee. In a paper titled ‘Purchase, pirate, publicize: Private-network music sharing and market album sales’ he examined the effect of BitTorrent-based piracy on both digital and physical music sales. We covered an earlier version of the study two years ago when it was still a work in progress. With updates to the research methods and a data sample, the results are now more clear. The file-sharing data was obtained from an unnamed private BitTorrent tracker and covers a data set of 250,000 albums and more than five million downloads. These were matched to US sales data for thousands of albums provided by Nielsen SoundScan. By refining the estimation approach and updating the matching technique, the final version of the paper shows some interesting results. Based on the torrent tracker data, Lee finds that piracy can boost sales of mid-tier artists, both for physical CDs and digital downloads. For the most popular artists, this effect is reversed. In both cases, the impact is the largest for digital sales. “I now find that top artists are harmed and mid-tier artists may be helped in both markets, but that these effects are larger for digital sales,” Lee tells TorrentFreak. “This is consistent with the idea that people are more willing to switch between digital piracy and digital sales than between digital piracy and physical CDs.” The findings lead to the conclusion that there is no ideal ‘one-size-fits-all’ response to piracy. In fact, some unauthorized sharing may be a good thing. This is in line with observations from musicians themselves over the past years. Several top artists have admitted the positive effects of piracy, including Ed Sheeran, who recently said that he owes his career to it. “I know that’s a bad thing to say, because I’m part of a music industry that doesn’t like illegal file sharing,” Sheeran said in an interview with CBS. “Illegal file sharing was what made me. It was students in England going to university, sharing my songs with each other.” Sheeran sharing on TPB https://torrentfreak.com/images/sheerantpb.png Today, Sheeran is in a totally different position of course. As one of the top artists, he would now be hurt by piracy. However, the new stars of tomorrow may still reap the benefits. According to the researcher, the music industry should realize that shutting down pirate sites may not always be the best option. On the contrary, file-sharing sites may be useful as promotional platforms in some cases. “Following above, a policy of total shutdown of private file sharing networks seems excessively costly (compared with their relatively small impact on sales) and unwise (as a one-size-fits-all policy). It would be better to make legal consumption more convenient, reducing the demand for piracy as an alternative to purchasing,” Lee tells us. “It would also be smart to experiment with releasing music onto piracy networks themselves, especially for up-and-coming artists, similar to the free promotion afforded by commercial radio.” The researcher makes another interesting extrapolation from the findings. In recent years, some labels and artists have signed exclusive deals with some streaming platforms. This means that content is not available everywhere, and this fragmentation may make piracy look more appealing. “Here you can view piracy as a non-fragmented alternative platform to Spotify et al. Thus consumers will have a strong incentive to use a single non-fragmented platform (piracy) over having multiple subscriptions to fragmented platforms,” Lee says. It would be better for the labels to publish their music on all platforms, and to make these more appealing and convenient than the pirate alternative. The data used for the research was collected several years ago before the big streaming boom, so it might be that the results are different today. However, it is clear that the effect of piracy on sales is not as uniform as the music industry often portrays it. Source: Torrentfreak.com

A variety of products could soon be marked using a new sand and chemical mix that is claimed to be “the world’s most secure marking system for combatting pirated goods”. Developed by Denmark’s University of Copenhagen, the system essentially applies a random pattern onto the product, which cannot be duplicated. The markings, which could be applied to pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, passports, electronics, designer merchandise and artwork, could hit the market within a year, said the researchers, who have published their findings in the scientific journal Science Advances. “The system is based on randomness, which makes it unable to be hacked or tampered with,” said associate professor Thomas Just Sorensen, head of research at the University of Copenhagen’s department of chemistry. “As soon as a customer asks that an authorised dealer checks up on a piece of merchandise that was meant to be marked using the system, an expensive wrist watch for example, the dealer can access a manufacturer database to check its authenticity.” The marking system is based on sand mixed with three rare earth metallic elements. Firstly, a large bucket of sand is divided into three smaller tubs, with one of three different elements – europium, terbium and dysprosium – added to each tub. The elements, which light up when exposed to a specific wavelength of light, get absorbed into the surface of each grain of sand. The three tubs are then mixed together. The random product markings are made when a piece of tape pulls thousands of coloured grains of sand out of the bucket, with the resulting pattern, measuring only a few millimetres, attached to the product by impregnating it into leather, embedding it into glass or milling it into metal. Because the grains of sand are so small, they cannot be removed individually and rearranged into another puzzle, the researchers said. Once attached, the marking is photographed at individual wavelengths, each of which gets the europium, terbium and dysprosium to light up. The three pictures are then combined into a single image, which is stored in a database. Products can be authenticated by scanning the product’s fingerprint and comparing it with the database. The probability of two products having the same fingerprints was “minuscule”, Sorensen said. “It can only be described as non-existent. It corresponds to a one out of an enormous number composed of a 6 followed by 104 zeros.” The system is not only unclonable, but the researchers said counterfeiting could be prevented if products are tagged. “We have developed an authentication system that comprises a hardware reader, image analysis, and authentication software and physical keys that we demonstrate as an anticounterfeiting system,” the researchers wrote in Science Advances. “Using physical unclonable functions (PUFs) in an anticounterfeiting system will address the billion-dollar economic losses imposed by counterfeiting and can potentially save lives if used to guarantee the authenticity of medicine,” the researchers added. The University of Copenhagen has taken out a patent on the system – which is described as an optical authentication system – and it is expected to be on the market in roughly a year after the researchers fine-tune scanning solutions. The researchers estimate that the cost of marking products will be modest, probably not much more than one Danish krone. Additional expenses from the data systems have yet to be fully estimated.

Dutch cybersecurity company Irdeto has released an updated version of its Piracy Control software solution that could help digital steaming companies protect their product. Online piracy remains a major problem: an estimated three million people illegally watched the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight last August, and a BBC survey found that 36 percent of Premier League fans watched pirated livestreams. More than half — 54 percent — of millennials reported in a Sport Industry Group survey that they watched illegally streamed sports. Irdeto’s new platform offers rapid detection capabilities and includes artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to detect logos, text and faces, in addition to video fingerprinting for metadata. “What the team did was set out to create a large data set of all possible channel logos,” Irdeto vice president of technology Peter Oggel told the UK-based tech site Alphr. “I think we got dozens of channels with hundreds of thousands of samples, that led to a complete training data set of more than three million samples.” Irdeto counts the Premier League among its clients, as well as content providers such as Comcast, beIN SPORTS, Rogers and Twentieth Century Fox; it was also the first digital rights management tool approved for use by the Chinese government. These logo detection methods have caught the attention of pirates, an Irdeto executive told Alphr, which has led to blanking or swapping of logos to thwart the AI. “That’s where the next phase of the machine learning project comes in,” Rory O’Connor, senior vice president of cybersecurity services for Irdeto, said. “We’re actually trying to teach [the system] to recognise things like football strips so it can actually determine which game is on from seeing Barcelona’s colours, or whomever else’s.” “It’s a continuous battle,” he added with a laugh. “Today the analysts are quite often hired on their knowledge of football leagues rather than specialist anti-piracy skills.”

Online learning platform Udemy is taking on FreeTutorials.us, a site making available a wide range of paid courses and tutorials for free. A California court has ordered Cloudflare to hand over all the information it has on FreeTutorials' operators but the site says it will continue its mission to provide free education for everyone. While there’s no shortage of people who advocate free sharing of movies and music, passions are often raised when it comes to the availability of educational information. Significant numbers of people believe that learning should be open to all and that texts and associated materials shouldn’t be locked away by copyright holders trying to monetize knowledge. Of course, people who make a living creating learning materials see the position rather differently. A clash of these ideals is brewing in the United States where online learning platform Udemy has been trying to have some of its courses taken down from FreeTutorials.us, a site that makes available premium tutorials and other learning materials for free. Early December 2017, counsel acting for Udemy and a number of its individual and corporate instructors (Maximilian Schwarzmüller, Academind GmbH, Peter Dalmaris, Futureshock Enterprises, Jose Marcial Portilla, and Pierian Data) wrote to FreeTutorials.us with DMCA takedown notice. “Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (‘DMCA’), this communication serves as a notice of infringement and request for removal of certain web content available on freetutorials.us,” the letter reads. “I hereby request that you remove or disable access to the material listed in Exhibit A in as expedient a fashion as possible. This communication does not constitute a waiver of any right to recover damages incurred by virtue of any such unauthorized activities, and such rights as well as claims for other relief are expressly retained.” A small sample of Exhibit A https://torrentfreak.com/images/udemy-exhibitA.png On January 10, 2018, the same law firm wrote to Cloudflare, which provides services to FreeTutorials. The DMCA notice asked Cloudflare to disable access to the same set of infringing content listed above. It seems likely that whatever happened next wasn’t to Udemy’s satisfaction. On January 16, an attorney from the same law firm filed a DMCA subpoena at a district court in California. A DMCA subpoena can enable a copyright holder to obtain the identity of an alleged infringer without having to file a lawsuit and without needing a signature from a judge. The subpoena was directed at Cloudflare, which provides services to FreeTutorials. The company was ordered to hand over “all identifying information identifying the owner, operator and/or contact person(s) associated with the domain www.freetutorials.us, including but not limited to name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), email address(es), Internet protocol connection records, administrative records and billing records from the time the account was established to the present.” On January 26, the date by which Cloudflare was ordered to hand over the information, Cloudflare wrote to FreeTutorials with a somewhat late-in-the-day notification. “We received the attached subpoena regarding freetutorials.us, a domain managed through your Cloudflare account. The subpoena requires us to provide information in our systems related to this website,” the company wrote. “We have determined that this is a valid subpoena, and we are required to provide the requested information. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we are informing you before we provide any of the requested subscriber information. We plan to turn over documents in response to the subpoena on January 26th, 2018, unless you intervene in the case.” With that deadline passing last Friday, it’s safe to say that Cloudflare has complied with the subpoena as the law requires. However, TorrentFreak spoke with FreeTutorials who told us that the company doesn’t hold anything useful on them. “No, they have nothing,” the team explained. Noting that they’ll soon dispense with the services of Cloudflare, the team confirmed that they had received emails from Udemy and its instructors but hadn’t done a lot in response. “How about a ‘NO’? was our answer to all the DMCA takedown requests from Udemy and its Instructors,” they added. FreeTutorials (FTU) are affiliated with FreeCoursesOnline (FCO) and seem passionate about what they do. In common with others who distribute learning materials online, they express a belief in free education for all, irrespective of financial resources. “We, FTU and FCO, are a group of seven members assorted as a team from different countries and cities. We are JN, SRZ aka SunRiseZone, Letap, Lihua Google Drive, Kaya, Zinnia, Faiz MeemBazooka,” a spokesperson revealed. “We’re all members and colleagues and we also have our own daily work and business stuff to do. We have been through that phase of life when we didn’t have enough money to buy books and get tuition or even apply for a good course that we always wanted to have, so FTU & FCO are just our vision to provide Free Education For Everyone. “We would love to change our priorities towards our current and future projects, only if we manage to get some faithful FTU’ers to join in and help us to grow together and make FTU a place it should be.” TorrentFreak requested comment from Udemy but at the time of publication, we were yet to hear back. However, we did manage to get in touch with Jonathan Levi, an Udemy instructor who sent this takedown notice to the site in October 2017: “I’m writing to you on behalf of SuperHuman Enterprises, LLC. You are in violation of our copyright, using our images, and linking to pirated copies of our courses. Remove them IMMEDIATELY or face severe legal action….You have 48 hours to comply,” he wrote, adding: “And in case you’re going to say I don’t have evidence that I own the files, it’s my fucking face in the videos.” Levi says that the site had been non-responsive so now things are being taken to the next level. “They don’t reply to takedowns, so we’ve joined a class action lawsuit against FTU lead by Udemy and a law firm specializing in this type of thing,” Levi concludes. Torrentfreak.com

Hello What is the name of the detector? GFT - 3

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. 'Thor Ragnarok' tops the chart this week, followed by ‘The Shape of Water'. 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' completes the top three. This week we have three newcomers in our chart. Thor Ragnarok is the most downloaded movie. The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart. This week’s most downloaded movies are: Movie Rank Rank last week Movie name IMDb Rating / Trailer Most downloaded movies via torrents 1 (2) Thor Ragnarok 8.1 / trailer 2 (1) The Shape of Water (DVDScr) 8.0 / trailer 3 (3) Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (HDTS) 7.3 / trailer 4 (…) Bright 6.5 / trailer 5 (4) Blade Runner 2049 8.9 / trailer 6 (…) Murder on the Orient Express (Subbed HDrip) 6.7 / trailer 7 (…) Downsizing (Subbed HDrip) 5.8 / trailer 8 (5) Geostorm 5.4 / trailer 9 (8) Justice League (Subbed HDRip) 7.1 / trailer 10 (7) Coco (DVDscr) 8.9 / trailer Source: Torrentfreak.com

The committee session began with a fair consensus on addressing the issue of piracy first. In the last decade, digitalization of music has improved its ease of access, thereby reinforcing the imperative need for a revision of policies governing music piracy and a discussion of piracy preventative measures. The discussion began by recognizing that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) cannot simply address the issues of piracy with more stringent litigation; on the contrary, several delegates expressed the importance of fostering a consumer culture which emphasizes that music is a product that needs to be paid for. Rather than pointing an accusatory finger at the large base of illegal music users and condemning these consumers for ‘stealing’, the RIAA seeks to “remind consumers of the importance of music and its purpose to sustain the livelihoods of artists” as stated in their first resolution. The President of the RIAA, Mitch Glazier, proposed the idea of incentivizing consumers to pay for music by working with companies like Spotify and Soundcloud to give extra content to their users. Julie Swidler, Executive Vice President of Business Affairs & General Counsel, Sony Music Entertainment, added on by proposing the concept of having a “buffet of content” and compounding the incentive for consumers to sign up to legal services such as Spotify by creating partnerships among other non-music content providers such as video and podcast services. This approach deliberately and decidedly neglects to appeal to the hard-core music fans, since these users likely buy the content themselves without requiring further incentive. Other delegates expanded the horizon of business partnerships to include bigger corporations. Mitch Glazier provided Coke Studio, a Pakistani TV series that features established and emerging artists collaborating with each other in studios funded by Coca-Cola, as an example of a unique business partnership that acts to combat piracy. While these ideas were pitched, the sentiment to use legal ramifications as a deterrent for piracy remained among several delegates. Some proposed lobbying Congress and monetarily supporting the government’s anti-piracy efforts, while others argued that it would be a large expenditure and perhaps a cost-benefit analysis would be necessary to determine whether this expense would be worthwhile. Aside from negotiating with the government on legislation, the RIAA proposed reaching out to companies like Apple and Sony and working with them to regulate their app stores to ‘weed out’ illegal apps that contribute to the problem. Along those lines came the idea of revamping surveillance systems such that sites illegally streaming an artist’s latest releases are targeted and taken down. For some delegates, this idea was met with raw skepticism, as shutting down pirating sites is, as described by delegate Will Tanous, like playing a game of whack-a-mole. Delegate Bradley Buckles asserted that since a large part of the piracy issue revolves around the digital file format, perhaps a technological solution would be effective. This concept would be similar to copy protection for CDs that effectively decreased unwarranted copying and distribution of music. This was described in the RIAA’s third draft resolution as a collaboration with Internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast to “combat piracy by slowing down and stopping peer-to-peer networks as well as ‘stream-ripping’ websites and apps” as suggested in the third resolution. Halfway through the session, the congregation was met with an unprecedented crisis update that informed delegates of an imprisonment of 500 college students without public trial due to piracy. The RIAA issued a statement rebuking the lawyers involved in the decision of a twenty-five year sentence ruling for the college students and agreed to offer funds in order to give the students a fair trial. Despite minor disagreements, the congregation remains united in its efforts to ameliorate their position as an industry.

Industry's last bastion crumbles as readers access illegally distributed content TOKYO -- Internet piracy dropped a bombshell on the last stronghold of Japan's publishing market in 2017, driving the first double-digit decline in manga sales while the overall industry shrank for the 13th straight year. The domestic market for stand-alone manga books, known as tankobon, contracted by 13%, nearly twice the industry's 7% decrease to 1.37 trillion yen ($12.5 billion), the All Japan Magazine and Book Publisher's and Editor's Association said on Jan. 25. Manga sales in the half through September sank 18% on the year, distributor Tohan said. The season around New Year's is usually brisk for wholesaler Nippon Shuppan Hanbai, but its sales fell nearly 20% this time. "These are shocking numbers," exclaimed Hirokazu Anzai, a senior managing director at the company. Although the publishing market has shriveled to half its 1996 peak, tankobon were one of the few genres still selling well. Starting in 2005, tankobon have outsold comic magazines such as publisher Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, which had been on a prolonged dive, with comic book sales even growing in some years. But the comic market's sluggishness became conspicuous three years ago. Sales dipped under 200 billion yen in 2016 and slid to about 170 billion yen last year. Though digitization has contributed to the disappointing results, publishers mainly point their fingers at online piracy. Over 5,000 titles like "One Piece," "Dragon Ball" and "The Seven Deadly Sins" are available on the largest of these websites. After a sudden drop in manga sales last autumn, one publisher discovered that many of its readers were now using a website that pirated titles from several companies to read for free. The damages were estimated at 400 million yen to 500 million yen a month. Websites with pirated content have spread in the blink of an eye thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and word of mouth on the internet. These sites are illegal, yet even identifying website operators is difficult because they use servers outside Japan, among other methods. It took three months to locate the server for Free Books, a popular website for pirated manga that was shut down in May. "Pirate site operators get revenue from ads," said Kensaku Fukui, a copyright lawyer. "There are probably many consumers who do not realize they are supporting crime." Major websites have methods to prevent piracy. Copyright holders can register videos and music with YouTube, for instance, and the website will detect other users who have posted the same material. Content owners also can block access or collect revenue from ads, in addition to other features. Messaging app Line is developing an artificial intelligence-based system to spot unauthorized use of pictures and other media that it will test on content aggregation websites. But even if caught, contact information for most of these pirates remains unknown. Manga is a cash cow for publishers. Tankobon can be produced at low cost because the content has already been published in comic magazines, and popular titles are sure to sell in large volumes as soon as they are released. One major publisher generates several billion yen in profit from manga alone, but that plunges over 80% when combined with magazines and other loss-making publications. Manga also makes up 19% of bookstores' total sales, according to Tohan. If the genre stops selling, it will be a major blow to these stores, which already run slim operating margins just under 0.3%. The industry has long said that times are tough, but the decline of a major moneymaker has created a do-or-die moment for many publishers.

Orrin Hatch tweets, ‘#StandWithSongwriters’ as he posts pirated clip from his seat at the #Grammys Well, this was unexpected… Senator Orrin Hatch (R, UT) is at the Grammys: https://twitter.com/senorrinhatch/st...98722112499712 Hatch, who is a songwriter himself, followed up with a tweet to #StandWithSongwriters who he thinks have a tough time getting paid in the internet age: https://twitter.com/senorrinhatch/st...99473425432576 This is a big thing for the retiring Utah Republican: https://twitter.com/nielslesniewski/...01556879044609 He’s even sponsoring legislation to make sure songwriters are paid “fairly for their work.” From Variety: "The Music Modernization Act updates music licensing laws to make it easier for songwriters to get paid when their music is streamed or purchased online. Songwriters have been seeking legislative changes for years, pointing out that they have not been receiving fair market value for their works on digital platforms like Spotify and Pandora." “Our music licensing laws are convoluted, out-of-date, and don’t reward songwriters fairly for their work,” said Hatch, who is a songwriter himself. “They’ve also failed to keep up with recent, rapid changes in how Americans purchase and listen to music.” And then — maybe to prove how easy it is to listen to a songwriter’s work without paying for it? — he tweeted a clip of of the awards show: https://twitter.com/senorrinhatch/st...03710234681344 And as for Hatch’s attendance at the event, the reaction from the blue-check mob was what you’d expect: https://twitter.com/jbendery/status/957800879536705537 https://twitter.com/ItsTheBrandi/sta...00809722470400 https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/957799700253507586 https://twitter.com/NBChristinaGinn/...00724947140608 https://twitter.com/AdamWeinstein/st...05467450925056 https://twitter.com/lesleyabravanel/...04285877682178

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have released a major update to their decentralized and pseudo-anonymous BitTorrent client. The new Tribler has its very own blockchain that tracks how much people are sharing, so users can be rewarded accordingly. This should ultimately improve the efficiency of the client's Tor-like protection. The Tribler client has been around for over a decade. We first covered it in 2006 and since then it’s developed into a truly decentralized BitTorrent client. Even if all torrent sites were shut down today, Tribler users would still be able to find and add new content. The project is not run by regular software developers but by a team of quality researchers at Delft University of Technology. There are currently more than 45 masters students, various thesis students, five dedicated scientific developers, and several professors involved. Simply put, Triber aims to make the torrent ecosystem truly decentralized and anonymous. A social network of peers that can survive even if all torrent sites ceased to exist. “Search and download torrents with less worries or censorship,” Triber’s tagline reads. Like many other BitTorrent clients, Tribler has a search box at the top of the application. However, the search results that appear when users type in a keyword don’t come from a central index. Instead, they come directly from other peers. Thriber’s search results https://torrentfreak.com/images/trib...6970274970.png With the latest release, Tribler 7.0, the project adds another element to the mix, it’s very own blockchain. This blockchain keeps track of how much people are sharing and rewards them accordingly. “Tribler is a torrent client for social people, who help each other. You can now earn tokens by helping others. It is specifically designed to prevent freeriding and detect hit-and-run peers.” Tribler leader Dr. Johan Pouwelse tells TF. “You help other Tribler users by seeding and by enhancing their privacy. In return, you get faster downloads, as your tokens show you contribute to the community.” Pouwelse, who aims to transform BitTorrent into an ethical Darknet, just presented the latest release at Stanford University. In addition, the Internet Engineering Task Force is also considering the blockchain implementation as an official Internet standard. This recognition from academics and technology experts is welcome, of course, but Triber’s true power comes from the users. The client has gathered a decent userbase of the years but there sure is plenty room for improvement on this front. The anonymity aspect is perhaps one of the biggest selling points and Pouwelse believes that this will greatly benefit from the blockchain implementation. Triber provides users with pseudo anonymity by routing the transfers through other users. However, this means that the amount of bandwith used by the application inceases as well. Thus far, this hasn’t worked very well, which resulted in slow anonymous downloads. “With the integrated blockchain release today we think we can start fixing the problem of both underseeded swarms and fast proxies,” Dr. Pouwelse says. “Our solution is basically very simple, only social people get decent performance on Tribler. This means in a few years we will end up with only users that act nice. Others leave.” Tribler’s trust stats https://torrentfreak.com/images/triblertrust.png Tribler provides users with quite a bit of flexibility on the anonymity site. The feature can be turned off completely, or people can choose a protection layer ranging from one to four hops. What’s also important to note is that users don’t operate as exit nodes by default. The IP-addresses of the exit nodes are public ouitside the network and can be monitored, so that would only increase liability. So who are the exit-nodes in this process then? According to Pouwelse’s rather colorful description, these appear to be volunteers that run their code through a VPN a or a VPS server. “The past years we have created an army of bots we call ‘Self-replicating Autonomous Entities’. These are Terminator-style self-replicating pieces of code which have their own Bitcoin wallet to go out there and buy servers to run more copies of themselves,” he explains. “They utilize very primitive genetic evolution to improve survival, buy a VPN for protection, earn credits using our experimental credit mining preview release, and sell our bandwidth tokens on our integrated decentral market for cold hard Bitcoin cash to renew the cycle of life for the next month billing cycle of their VPS provider.” Some might question why there’s such a massive research project dedicated to building an anonymous BitTorrent network. What are the benefits to society? The answer is clear, according to Pouwelse. The ethical darknet they envision will be a unique micro-economy where sharing is rewarded, without having to expose one’s identity. “We are building the Internet of Trust. The Internet can do amazing things, it even created honesty among drugs dealers,” he says, referring to the infamous Silk Road. “Reliability rating of drugs lords gets you life imprisonment. That’s not something we want. We are creating our own trustworthy micro-economy for bandwidth tokens and real Bitcoins,” he adds. People who are interested in taking Tribler for a spin can download the latest version from the official website. Source: Torrentfreak.com

Director of Creative Arts, Programs and Projects at the National Commission on Culture, Socrate Sarfo has cited the lack of funds as the major problem facing the fight against piracy. Speaking in an interview with Andy Dosty on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM, Socrate Sarfo blamed the situation on the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) system of accessing funds from the government to embark on projects to fight piracy. During the interview, Mr Sarfo took time to throw more light on what the system entails. “...monies that are supposed to come to us to fight piracy goes to the government. These funds are not easily accessible. We have to go through the GIFMIS system to retrieve them and this can take up to three months. We can't fight piracy with this kind of structure...,” he said. Socrate Sarfo, who seemed disturbed about the system threw a challenge to industry people who are affected by the high rate of piracy to unite as a body and fight against the system. He was however optimistic about the fact that this system can be changed. He assured that if the GIFMIS system is ruled out, piracy will be a thing of the past. “...This is about the collective society and the structure is wrong. We all have to come together and fight the system. If it is not addressed we are always going to complain and suffer... he told Andy Dosty. GIFMIS was launched in September 2009, as part of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reforms in Ghana. The Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) is responsible for the reforms.

IT’S HARD TO believe that it’s only been a few weeks since the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a movie that busted up the box office and has kept fans in heated debate ever since. Yet there's another Star Wars movie on the horizon (just months away!) and it's time it got everyone's full attention. Before that happens, though, there are a few bits of lingering Last Jedi business that need to be addressed. Read on. The Last Jedi Adds Some More Material (But Not Onscreen) The Source: An official announcement from Lucasfilm Probability of Accuracy: It’s totally legit. The Real Deal: So apparently, there was more to Star Wars: The Last Jedi than appeared onscreen—but fortunately for fans, it's not going to remain a secret. Writer/director Rian Johnson is working with novelist Jason Fry to create all-new scenes for the book’s forthcoming novelization, as well as rescuing deleted scenes from the cutting room floor, to firmly place them in the canon. Amongst the things audiences didn’t see in theaters but will read about: Han Solo’s funeral. Prepare your tissues for March 6; you'll get to read all about it then. A Complete Guide to All of The Last Jedi's Easter Eggs The Source: Lucasfilm, again Probability of Accuracy: Once again, if it comes from Lucasfilm, you can take it to the bank. Or, at least, to Canto Bight. The Real Deal: Those who have seen The Last Jedi repeatedly know that there’s a lot in there, but it took an official Lucasfilm video to reveal just how many Easter eggs were hidden in plain view during the movie, including references to the Star Wars: Battlefront videogames, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the comics and novel spin-offs. Also discussed by the video, which features members of Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Story Group, are the origins of Benicio del Toro’s character’s name and the scene from Star Wars: The Force Awakens that gets a special callback in The Last Jedi, even though said scene was actually cut from the final edit of The Force Awakens. Sounds complicated, but if you watch the video it will all make perfect sense. Meanwhile, Behind the Scenes on Crait and Ahch-To… The Source: Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson Probability of Accuracy: Look, if the guy who made the movie doesn’t know… The Real Deal: If a Last Jedi mystery-unveiling, Easter egg hunt video isn't enough secret-spilling for you, then perhaps Rian Johnson's spoiler-filled discussion with Empire is something that might appeal. For those who don’t like podcasts, the site also broke down the main points in written form, including the philosophy of Kylo Ren and how much the movie itself embraces it, and what’s going on with Luke’s use of the Force in comparison to its use in other Star Wars films. Of course, maybe Johnson should just leave that kind of explanation to the latest medium he’s mastered: the silent Twitter thread. No, really; click through to that thread, if you haven’t already seen it. It’s amazing. Solo Finally Gets a Story. Kind Of The Source: Disney’s PR for 2018 Probability of Accuracy: For what little is here, it’s probably accurate? The Real Deal: Meanwhile, it appears that Disney still believes that Solo: A Star Wars Story is going to come out in May, and to that end, it finally released a plot synopsis for the movie. Well, kind of. Here’s the official synopsis: “Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in Solo: A Star Wars Story, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.” It’s not exactly forthcoming when it comes to actual plot, is it? At this point, someone could say this entire movie is some kind of extended practical joke and it wouldn't seem implausible. Whither a trailer, considering the movie is in theaters in less than four months? Maybe fans will have to wait for the Super Bowl… The Beginning of the End of Star Wars Rebels The Source: Official Star Wars Rebels PR Probability of Accuracy: Trailers are intended to tease and occasionally distract and dissemble, but it’s rare that they outright lie. The Real Deal: Speaking of trailers, the final clip for Star Wars Rebels—which is headed into its final run of episodes starting February 19—dropped earlier this month and re-introduced a very familiar threat: the Emperor himself, voiced by Ian McDiarmid, who played the character in his live-action appearances. Of course, the series ending and the Emperor showing up … well, that really doesn’t bode well for Ezra, especially considering the Emperor seems to know exactly who he is. The show comes to a conclusion March 5 with a special feature-length episode.

Going where no fan has gone before, Star Trek: Discovery star Jason Isaacs reflects on THAT shocking Captain Lorca twist. As one of the biggest names to sign up for Discovery‘s freshman year, the Harry Potter star has led the first chapter of the sci-fi show as the no-nonsense captain of the USS Discovery. However, reliving the Star Trek of old, the midseason finale saw our cast of characters sent into a dark mirror world. Among the big twists and reveal of Ash Tyler as Voq, our jaws hit the floor when we found out that our Grabiel Lorca was actually the evil version plucked from the Mirror Universe. But, just where has “our” Lorca been all this time? Speaking to EW, Isaacs cryptically discussed where ‘Prime’ Lorca really is: “There was a Prime Lorca, he was captain of the Buran in the Prime world. He swapped with him and found himself captain of the Buran. This never came out, this backstory detail we never put in the dialogue: Although Lorca spins this story having had to sacrifice the men on Buran and had to blow them up to save them from Klingon torture. Actually, if I remember correctly, there was some kind of DNA identification that would have exposed Lorca as not being Prime Lorca, and so he blew up the ship and killed everyone on it.” The death of those aboard the Buran is an even darker take on the tale which would’ve added another layer to Lorca’s mysterious past, so it is a shame that the showrunners decided to ax the storyline. However, as another gripping twist to season 1, it would be hard to argue that the Lorca storyline didn’t get its payoff even without this extra layer. Those who tuned in for the episode ‘What’s Past Is Prologue,’ will have seen the dramatic climax where Michelle Yeoh’s Emperor Philippa Georgiou stabbed the treacherous Lorca with her sword and then dumped his body into a reactor. It continues a trend of season 1 of killing main characters, but as we have already seen with the likes of Yeoh, death isn’t necessarily the end on Discovery. Asked whether Lorca could return (presumably in Prime form), Isaacs remained coy on his chances for season 2, teasing the site if he knew where the other Gabriel is: “If I did, you’d have to stand behind my wife, friends, and professional collaborators to find out the answer. I’ve kept this one big secret for six months — I am certainly going to keep any others.” Sure, Isaacs may be gone for now on the show, but with the loose end of Prime Lorca still looming over us, we don’t see this as the end for his involvement in the show. Various sources had already promised a Game of Thrones-style culling where no one is safe, but the possibility of bringing back Lorca is surely too good to give up on. For now though, at least we know Mirror Universe Lorca is dead. Seeing his body vaporize in agonizing detail, there is no way he will be back from the dead to take on the Terran Empire. With two episodes left of season 1, it will be interesting to see where Discovery goes next. Moving at break-neck speed, the show has capitalized on the loyalty of old Trek fans while also bringing in a whole new group of viewers. With Isaacs playing almost second lead to Sonequa Martin Green’s Michael Burnham, there will likely be a big hole in the Star Trek: Discovery cast until his eventual return.

With production finished on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, Marvel is moving on to more of 2019’s movies. Filming has kicked off on Captain Marvel, with Brie Larson heading to California to film her first scenes in costume. Naturally, set photos quickly hit the Internet – and took fans by surprise. Concept art had led fans to expect a version of Captain Marvel’s iconic red-and-black costume. Instead, the photos showed Larson wearing an outfit that was green and gray. What’s going on? And what does this costume actually mean? CAROL DANVERS IS WORKING WITH THE KREE In the comics, Carol Danvers was an agent in the US Air Force who wound up working alongside an alien race known as the Kree. Specifically, she became an ally of the Kree warrior Captain Mar-vell. That led to her body being irradiated with alien energy, imbuing Carol with Kree powers. She initially took up the superhero identity of Ms. Marvel, but ultimately claimed the identity of Captain Marvel in honor of the fallen Kree hero. It looks as though Captain Marvel will follow a similar structure. Larson has been visiting USAF bases to get a sense of how the Air Force operates, and has even taken flight training. It’s safe to say Carol’s USAF background will be retained for the film, and the fact Larson actually went through training is exciting. Meanwhile, Jude Law has been cast as Mar-Vell, so Carol’s friend and ally will appear in the film as well. This time around, though, Carol Danvers’s costume suggests an ever closer link. Somehow, Carol will wind up wearing the distinctive uniform of a Kree Captain. One of the set photos shows Carol gripping a man’s arm, pushing him to the ground. It seems clear she already has super-strength, so these scenes take place after she has already been given her the Captain Marvel powers. THE COMIC BOOK INSPIRATION FOR CAPTAIN MARVEL Marvel visionary Kevin Feige has already confirmed that Captain Marvel will be partly inspired by a classic arc known as the Kree-Skrull War. Avengers writer Roy Thomas drew inspiration from Raymond F. Jones’s This Island Earth. He imagined a story in which the planet Earth became caught in the conflict between two vast, powerful alien races – neither of whom cared whether or not Earth survived. The planet became the cosmic equivalent of a Pacific island in World War II, with native islanders horrified as the Americans and the Japanese waged war on their shores. In the early 2000s, Marvel launched the so-called “Ultimate Universe” – a modernized relaunch of their key series. Although this was initially much more grounded, as time passed Marvel continued to embrace the cosmic aspects of their franchises. In 2005, the Ultimate Secret miniseries introduced a reimagined version of the Kree race, along with Mar-Vell himself. In the Ultimate Universe, the Kree were aware of a world-ending threat that was headed straight for Earth. They intended to sabotage humanity’s attempts at space exploration, and so ensure our race was rendered extinct. Mar-Vell rebelled against this, and chose to help humanity survive the threat of Gah Lak Tus. The Marvel movies have always tended to draw inspiration from the Ultimate Universe. Significantly, Brie Larson’s costume is actually a blend of the tradition Mar-Vell outfit and the one he wore in Ultimate Secret. These first set photos definitely tease that the Ultimate Universe is continuing to influence the MCU – and will perhaps inform the plot, as well. THE ’90S AND THE SPACE AGE This may offer a subtle clue as to why Captain Marvel is set in the ’90s. Until the ’90s, space exploration was essentially caught up in the Space Race – a period of intense rivalry between the United States and the U.S.S.R.. The fall of the Berlin Wall changed everything, though, and humanity began to focus on space exploration as an end in itself. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched; construction began on the International Space Station; and NASA landed the Pathfinder on Mars. Before the ’90s, space exploration had been a matter of intense rivalry. Now, humanity was looking outwards. Significantly, the USAF maintained a strong connection tie to the American space program. In the context of the MCU, in the ’90s humanity was taking its first faltering steps into space. And it looks as though that drew attention – from both the Skrulls and the Kree. Neither race will be on Earth with humanity’s best interests at heart. Both are really focused on defeating the other in battle. It’s possible that, in a plot thread lifted from Ultimate Secret, one or both races may intend to prevent humanity reaching the stars. HOW CAPTAIN MARVEL CONNECTS TO THE REST OF THE MCU But how does Captain Marvel fit into the broader MCU? So far, there seem to be three ways. The first, of course, is that the film will feature Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury. It seems likely this will be S.H.I.E.L.D.’s first contact with aliens, and they will swiftly learn that humanity is very vulnerable indeed. Curiously, though, Fury would be unable to get funding for aggressive defense projects until over a decade later – when Thor battled the Destroyer. It seems likely the events of Captain Marvel will be hushed up, and possibly all evidence of alien involvement destroyed. Although Fury is left watchful, confident that aliens will return, he’s not able to actually prepare for them. The second is the Quantum Realm. Introduced in Ant-Man, the Quantum Realm is another plane of reality, an alternate dimension reached by Scott Lang. Quantum physicist Dr. Spiros Michalaki, one of Marvel’s consultants, has already confirmed that the Quantum Realm will appear in Captain Marvel. Significantly, in the comics Kree warriors typically wear “Nega-Bands” – wrist bands devices that grant their wearers tremendous power. These Nega-Bands were based on Quasar’s “Quantum Bands,” and draw their power from a realm of potential energy known as the Quantum Zone. It seems likely that a version of the Nega-Bands will appear in the film, although it’s worth noting that Larson’s gauntlets don’t seem to be prominent enough to be Nega-Bands themselves. The final link is a simple thematic one. Although Captain Marvel is set in the ’90s, the film is releasing between Avengers: Infinity War and the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4. Given that’s the case, it’s surely no coincidence that Captain Marvel will tell the tale of Earth’s first contact with aliens – while both Infinity War and Avengers 4 will see the Earth battle to survive the threat of Thanos. In both cases, humanity has drawn attention to itself, and will likely regret that fact. THE RED-AND-BLACK COSTUME WILL APPEAR It’s worth stressing one final detail. Brie Larson may be wearing gray-and-green in these set photos, but she’ll inevitably move to the classic color scheme by the end of the film. Concept art released at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con showed Carol Danvers in her traditional red-and-black. There’s no way Marvel would officially release concept art that was so different to the finished product. That fact subtly reshaped our understanding of the scene. Carol has allied with the Kree, and claimed the uniform of a Kree Captain. That doesn’t mean she’ll work as their ally throughout the film, nor does it mean that the Kree – as a race – are the “good guys.” It simply means that, in this scene, Larson will have formed some sort of alliance with the Kree, or perhaps will have returned to Earth after having infiltrated the alien race. By the end of the movie, fans should expect Captain Marvel to don a more traditional costume, and it’s likely set photos will show that outfit when filming resumes in March. Captain Marvel remains a subject of mystery. Why is the film set in the ’90s? How will Mar-Vell be portrayed, and will Carol Danvers wind up allying with the Kree? These first set photos have offered some intriguing hints, and fans are sure to examine every future photo in search of more clues.

WWE’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view is known for having lots of surprise entrants in the match, but the biggest surprise came as the show was drawing to a close: Ronda Rousey made her official WWE debut. There had been rumors for a while that Rousey was transitioning into the wrestling world, and even many saying it would happen at the Royal Rumble. However, Rousey totally denied this speculation, saying she would be busy filming Mile 22 until February. Clearly she was just trying to keep the lid on the surprise, and it worked, with fans at the WWE event stunned to see Rousey. It was a big Royal Rumble pay-per-view for a lot of reasons, with the most notable going into the night being that for the first time ever, the female wrestlers would be getting their own Royal Rumble match. The match began in 1988, and for all of the thirty previous Rumbles only men had gotten to do the match. The WWE had a long history of featuring women in more sexualized roles, including wrestling in Bra-and-Panties matches, but in recent years has had a big push to portray their women’s division more seriously. Lately the women have been competing for the first time ever in many matches that had been exclusive to men until now, and the Rumble was one of the few left for the women to do for the first time. The women’s Rumble saw many surprise returns of fan favorites from the past, including Lita, Molly Holly, and Trish Stratus. The popular Asuka was the last remaining woman, giving the Japanese star her choice of whether she wished to challenge Raw champion Alexa Bliss at Wrestlemania or Smackdown champion Charlotte Flair. That’s when Rousey interrupted the celebration, entering the ring to stare down her competition. She pointed at the Wrestlemania sign, indicating whichever champion Asuka didn’t fight, Rousey would challenge. ESPN later released an interview with Rousey, where she revealed she signed a full-time contract with WWE and intends to compete. She said: “This is my life now. First priority on my timeline for the next several years. This is not a smash-and-grab; this is not a publicity stunt.” Rousey has appeared in WWE multiple times before, most notably at Wrestlemania 31 in an appearance alongside the Rock. But the Royal Rumble is her official debut as an active member of the roster. Rousey, who got her “Rowdy” nickname in reference to her being a fan of wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (used with Piper’s blessing, prior to his passing) showed up at the Rumble wearing Piper’s signature leather jacket, given to her by Piper’s son. Her interest in wrestling has been known for years, with her attending numerous WWE events. Rousey made shockwaves in the world of UFC, becoming an innovator in the company as it began welcoming women’s martial artists, and becoming a superstar as one of their most dominant champions. After two back-to-back losses, Rousey quit MMA with a 12-2 record, but has made no secret of her passion for breaking into wrestling. Now she has arrived in the WWE, and will no doubt continue to make an impact.

Bruno Mars was the big winner at the 60th annual Grammy Awards. The musician won all six awards for which he was nominations, including album, song, and record of the year. Kendrick Lamar followed close behind with five Grammys, including best rap album. Jay-Z, who led the nominations with eight nods, was shut out completely. The buzziest performances included Kesha’s emotional “Praying,” Lamar’s politically charged opening number that featured U2 and Dave Chappelle, and Rihanna’s “Wildest Thoughts” with DJ Khaled and Bryson Tiller. James Corden returned to host the ceremony for the second consecutive time from Madison Square Garden. Sunday night’s show marks the Grammys’ first ceremony in New York since 2003. See a full list of winners below. Record Of The Year: “Redbone” — Childish Gambino “Despacito” — Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber “The Story Of O.J.” — Jay-Z “HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar “24K Magic” — Bruno Mars (WINNER) Album Of The Year: “Awaken, My Love!” — Childish Gambino 4:44 — Jay-Z DAMN. — Kendrick Lamar Melodrama — Lorde 24K Magic — Bruno Mars (WINNER) Song Of The Year: “Despacito” — Ramón Ayala, Justin Bieber, Jason “Poo Bear” Boyd, Erika Ender, Luis Fonsi & Marty James Garton, songwriters (Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber) “4:44” — Shawn Carter & Dion Wilson, songwriters (Jay-Z) “Issues” — Benny Blanco, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Julia Michaels & Justin Drew Tranter, songwriters (Julia Michaels) “1-800-273-8255” — Alessia Caracciolo, Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, Arjun Ivatury & Khalid Robinson, songwriters (Logic Featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid) “That’s What I Like” — Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip, songwriters (Bruno Mars) (WINNER) Best New Artist: Alessia Cara (WINNER) Khalid Lil Uzi Vert Julia Michaels SZA POP FIELD Best Pop Solo Performance: “Shape Of You” — Ed Sheeran (WINNER) “Love So Soft” — Kelly Clarkson “Praying” — Kesha “Million Reasons” — Lady Gaga “What About Us” — P!nk Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: “Something Just Like This” — The Chainsmokers & Coldplay “Despacito” — Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber “Thunder” — Imagine Dragons “Feel It Still” — Portugal. The Man (WINNER) “Stay” — Zedd & Alessia Cara Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Nobody But Me (Deluxe Version) — Michael Bublé Triplicate — Bob Dylan In Full Swing — Seth MacFarlane Wonderland — Sarah McLachlan Tony Bennett Celebrates 90 — (Various Artists) Dae Bennett, Producer (WINNER) Best Pop Vocal Album: Kaleidoscope EP — Coldplay Lust For Life — Lana Del Rey Evolve — Imagine Dragons Rainbow — Kesha Joanne — Lady Gaga ÷ (Divide) — Ed Sheeran (WINNER) DANCE/ELECTRONIC FIELD Best Dance Recording: “Bambro Koyo Ganda” — Bonobo Featuring Innov Gnawa “Cola” — Camelphat & Elderbrook “Andromeda” — Gorillaz Featuring DRAM “Tonite” — LCD Soundsystem (WINNER) “Line Of Sight” — Odesza Featuring WYNNE & Mansionair Best Dance/Electronic Album: Migration — Bonobo 3-D The Catalogue — Kraftwerk (WINNER) Mura Masa — Mura Masa A Moment Apart — Odesza What Now — Sylvan Esso CONTEMPORARY INSTRUMENTAL FIELD Best Contemporary Instrumental Album: What If — The Jerry Douglas Band Spirit — Alex Han Mount Royal — Julian Lage & Chris Eldridge Prototype — Jeff Lorber Fusion (WINNER) Bad Hombre — Antonio Sanchez ROCK FIELD Best Rock Performance: “You Want It Darker” — Leonard Cohen (WINNER) “The Promise” — Chris Cornell “Run” — Foo Fighters “No Good” — Kaleo “Go To War” — Nothing More Best Metal Performance: “Invisible Enemy” — August Burns Red “Black Hoodie” — Body Count “Forever” — Code Orange “Sultan’s Curse” — Mastodon (WINNER) “Clockworks” — Meshuggah Best Rock Song: “Atlas, Rise!” — James Hetfield & Lars Ulrich, songwriters (Metallica) “Blood In The Cut” — JT Daly & Kristine Flaherty, songwriters (K.Flay) “Go To War” — Ben Anderson, Jonny Hawkins, Will Hoffman, Daniel Oliver, David Pramik & Mark Vollelunga, songwriters (Nothing More) “Run” — Foo Fighters, songwriters (Foo Fighters) (WINNERS) “The Stage” — Zachary Baker, Brian Haner, Matthew Sanders, Jonathan Seward & Brooks Wackerman, songwriters (Avenged Sevenfold) Best Rock Album: Emperor Of Sand — Mastodon Hardwired…To Self-Destruct — Metallica The Stories We Tell Ourselves — Nothing More Villains — Queens Of The Stone Age A Deeper Understanding — The War On Drugs (WINNER) ALTERNATIVE FIELD Best Alternative Music Album: Everything Now — Arcade Fire Humanz — Gorillaz American Dream — LCD Soundsystem Pure Comedy — Father John Misty Sleep Well Beast — The National (WINNER) R&B FIELD Best R&B Performance: “Get You” — Daniel Caesar Featuring Kali Uchis “Distraction” — Kehlani “High” — Ledisi “That’s What I Like” — Bruno Mars (WINNER) “The Weekend” — SZA Best Traditional R&B Performance: “Laugh And Move On” — The Baylor Project “Redbone” — Childish Gambino (WINNER) “What I’m Feelin’” — Anthony Hamilton Featuring The Hamiltones| “All The Way” — Ledisi “Still” — Mali Music Best R&B Song: “First Began” — PJ Morton, songwriter (PJ Morton) “Location” — Alfredo Gonzalez, Olatunji Ige, Samuel David Jiminez, Christopher McClenney, Khalid Robinson & Joshua Scruggs, songwriters (Khalid) “Redbone” — Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson, songwriters (Childish Gambino) “Supermodel” — Tyran Donaldson, Terrence Henderson, Greg Landfair Jr., Solana Rowe & Pharrell Williams, songwriters (SZA) “That’s What I Like” — Christopher Brody Brown, James Fauntleroy, Philip Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus & Jonathan Yip, songwriters (Bruno Mars) (WINNER) Best Urban Contemporary Album: Free 6LACK — 6LACK “Awaken, My Love!” — Childish Gambino American Teen — Khalid Ctrl — SZA Starboy — The Weeknd (WINNER) Best R&B Album: Freudian — Daniel Caesar Let Love Rule — Ledisi 24K Magic — Bruno Mars (WINNER) Gumbo — PJ Morton Feel The Real –Musiq Soulchild RAP FIELD Best Rap Performance: “Bounce Back” — Big Sean “Bodak Yellow” — Cardi B “4:44” — Jay-Z “HUMBLE.” — Kendrick Lamar (WINNER) “Bad And Boujee” — Migos Featuring Lil Uzi Vert Best Rap/Sung Performance: “LOYALTY.” — Kendrick Lamar Featuring Rihanna (WINNER) “PRBLMS” — 6LACK “Crew” — Goldlink Featuring Brent Faiyaz & Shy Glizzy “Family Feud” — Jay-Z Featuring Beyoncé “Love Galore” — SZA Featuring Travis Scott Best Rap Song: “Bodak Yellow” — Dieuson Octave, Klenord Raphael, Shaftizm, Jordan Thorpe, Washpoppin & J White, songwriters (Cardi B) “Chase Me” — Judah Bauer, Brian Burton, Hector Delgado, Jaime Meline, Antwan Patton, Michael Render, Russell Simins & Jon Spencer, songwriters (Danger Mouse Featuring Run The Jewels & Big Boi) “HUMBLE.” — Duckworth, Asheton Hogan & M. Williams II, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar) (WINNER) “Sassy” — Gabouer & M. Evans, songwriters (Rapsody) “The Story Of O.J.” — Shawn Carter & Dion Wilson, songwriters (Jay-Z) Best Rap Album: DAMN. — Kendrick Lamar (WINNER) 4:44 — Jay-Z Culture — Migos Laila’s Wisdom — Rapsody Flower Boy — Tyler, The Creator COUNTRY FIELD Best Country Solo Performance: “Body Like A Back Road” — Sam Hunt “Losing You: –Alison Krauss “Tin Man” — Miranda Lambert “I Could Use A Love Song” — Maren Morris “Either Way” — Chris Stapleton (WINNER) Best Country Duo/Group Performance: “It Ain’t My Fault” — Brothers Osborne “My Old Man” — Zac Brown Band “You Look Good” — Lady Antebellum “Better Man” — Little Big Town (WINNER) “Drinkin’ Problem” — Midland Best Country Song: “Better Man” — Taylor Swift, songwriter (Little Big Town) “Body Like A Back Road” — Zach Crowell, Sam Hunt, Shane McAnally & Josh Osborne, songwriters (Sam Hunt) “Broken Halos” — Mike Henderson & Chris Stapleton, songwriters (Chris Stapleton) (WINNER) “Drinkin’ Problem” — Jess Carson, Cameron Duddy, Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne & Mark Wystrach, songwriters (Midland) “Tin Man” — Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert & Jon Randall, songwriters (Miranda Lambert) Best Country Album: Cosmic Hallelujah — Kenny Chesney Heart Break — Lady Antebellum The Breaker — Little Big Town Life Changes — Thomas Rhett From A Room: Volume 1 — Chris Stapleton (WINNER) NEW AGE FIELD Best New Age Album: Reflection — Brian Eno SongVersation: Medicine — India.Arie Dancing On Water — Peter Kater (WINNER) Sacred Journey Of Ku-Kai, Volume 5 — Kitaro Spiral Revelation — Steve Roach JAZZ FIELD Best Improvised Jazz Solo: “Can’t Remember Why” — Sara Caswell, soloist “Dance Of Shiva” — Billy Childs, soloist “Whisper Not” — Fred Hersch, soloist “Miles Beyond” — John McLaughlin, soloist (WINNER) “Ilimba” — Chris Potter, soloist Best Jazz Vocal Album: The Journey — The Baylor Project A Social Call — Jazzmeia Horn Bad Ass And Blind — Raul Midón Porter Plays Porter — Randy Porter Trio With Nancy King Dreams And Daggers — Cécile McLorin Salvant (WINNER) Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Uptown, Downtown — Bill Charlap Trio Rebirth — Billy Childs (WINNER) Project Freedom –Joey DeFrancesco & The People Open Book — Fred Hersch The Dreamer Is The Dream — Chris Potter Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: MONK’estra Vol. 2 — John Beasley Jigsaw — Alan Ferber Big Band Bringin’ It — Christian McBride Big Band (WINNER) Homecoming — Vince Mendoza & WDR Big Band Cologne Whispers On The Wind — Chuck Owen And The Jazz Surge Best Latin Jazz Album: Hybrido – From Rio To Wayne Shorter — Antonio Adolfo Oddara — Jane Bunnett & Maqueque Outra Coisa – The Music Of Moacir Santos — Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves Típico — Miguel Zenón Jazz Tango — Pablo Ziegler Trio (WINNER) GOSPEL/ CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN MUSIC FIELD Best Gospel Performance/Song: “Too Hard Not To” — Tina Campbell “You Deserve It” — JJ Hairston & Youthful Praise Featuring Bishop Cortez Vaughn “Better Days” — Le’Andria “My Life” — The Walls Group “Never Have To Be Alone” — CeCe Winans (WINNER) Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song: “Oh My Soul” — Casting Crowns “Clean” — Natalie Grant “What A Beautiful Name” — Hillsong Worship (WINNER) “Even If” — MercyMe “Hills And Valleys” — Tauren Wells Best Gospel Album: Crossover: Live From Music City — Travis Greene Bigger Than Me — Le’Andria Close — Marvin Sapp Sunday Song — Anita Wilson Let Them Fall In Love — CeCe Winans (WINNER) Best Contemporary Christian Music Album: Rise — Danny Gokey Echoes (Deluxe Edition) — Matt Maher Lifer — MercyMe Hills And Valleys — Tauren Wells Chain Breaker — Zach Williams (WINNER) Best Roots Gospel Album: The Best Of The Collingsworth Family – Volume 1 — The Collingsworth Family Give Me Jesus — Larry Cordle Resurrection — Joseph Habedank Sing It Now: Songs Of Faith & Hope — Reba McEntire (WINNER) Hope For All Nations — Karen Peck & New River LATIN FIELD Best Latin Pop Album: Lo Único Constante — Alex Cuba Mis Planes Son Amarte — Juanes Amar Y Vivir En Vivo Desde La Ciudad De México, 2017 — La Santa Cecilia Musas (Un Homenaje Al Folclore Latinoamericano En Manos De Los Macorinos) — Natalia Lafourcade El Dorado — Shakira (WINNER) Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album: Ayo — Bomba Estéreo Pa’ Fuera — C4 Trío & Desorden Público Salvavidas De Hielo — Jorge Drexler El Paradise — Los Amigos Invisibles Residente — Residente (WINNER) Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano): Ni Diablo Ni Santo — Julión Álvarez Y Su Norteño Banda Ayer Y Hoy — Banda El Recodo De Cruz Lizárraga Momentos — Alex Campos Arriero Somos Versiones Acústicas — Aida Cuevas (WINNER) Zapateando En El Norte — Humberto Novoa, producer (Various Artists) Best Tropical Latin Album: Albita — Albita Art Of The Arrangement — Doug Beavers Salsa Big Band — Rubén Blades Con Roberto Delgado & Orquesta (WINNER) Gente Valiente — Silvestre Dangond Indestructible — Diego El Cigala AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC FIELD Best American Roots Performance: Killer Diller Blues — Alabama Shakes (WINNER) Let My Mother Live — Blind Boys Of Alabama Arkansas Farmboy — Glen Campbell Steer Your Way — Leonard Cohen I Never Cared For You — Alison Krauss Best American Roots Song: “Cumberland Gap” — David Rawlings “I Wish You Well” — The Mavericks “If We Were Vampires” — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit (WINNER) “It Ain’t Over Yet” — Rodney Crowell Featuring Rosanne Cash & John Paul White “My Only True Friend” –Gregg Allman Best Americana Album: Southern Blood — Gregg Allman Shine On Rainy Day — Brent Cobb Beast Epic — Iron & Wine The Nashville Sound — Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit (WINNER) Brand New Day — The Mavericks Best Bluegrass Album: Fiddler’s Dream — Michael Cleveland Laws Of Gravity — The Infamous Stringdusters (WINNER) Original — Bobby Osborne Universal Favorite — Noam Pikelny All The Rage – In Concert Volume One [Live] — Rhonda Vincent And The Rage (WINNER) Best Traditional Blues Album: Migration Blues — Eric Bibb Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio — Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio Roll And Tumble — R.L. Boyce Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train — Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi Blue & Lonesome — The Rolling Stones (WINNER) Best Contemporary Blues Album: Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm — Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm Recorded Live In Lafayette — Sonny Landreth TajMo — Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’ (WINNER) Got Soul — Robert Randolph & The Family Band Live From The Fox Oakland — Tedeschi Trucks Band Best Folk Album: Mental Illness — Aimee Mann (WINNER) Semper Femina — Laura Marling The Queen Of Hearts — Offa Rex You Don’t Own Me Anymore — The Secret Sisters The Laughing Apple — Yusuf / Cat Stevens Best Regional Roots Music Album: Top Of The Mountain — Dwayne Dopsie And The Zydeco Hellraisers Ho’okena 3.0 — Ho’okena Kalenda — Lost Bayou Ramblers (WINNER) Miyo Kekisepa, Make A Stand [Live] — Northern Cree Pua Kiele — Josh Tatofi REGGAE FIELD Best Reggae Album: Chronology — Chronixx Lost In Paradise — Common Kings Wash House Ting — J Boog Stony Hill — Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley (WINNER) Avrakedabra — Morgan Heritage WORLD MUSIC FIELD Best World Music Album: Memoria De Los Sentidos — Vicente Amigo Para Mi — Buika Rosa Dos Ventos — Anat Cohen & Trio Brasileiro Shaka Zulu Revisited: 30th Anniversary Celebration — Ladysmith Black Mambazo (WINNER) Elwan — Tinariwen CHILDREN’S FIELD Best Children’s Album: Brighter Side — Gustafer Yellowgold Feel What U Feel — Lisa Loeb (WINNER) Lemonade — Justin Roberts Rise Shine #Woke — Alphabet Rockers Songs Of Peace & Love For Kids & Parents Around The World — Ladysmith Black Mambazo SPOKEN WORD FIELD Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling): Astrophysics For People In A Hurry — Neil Degrasse Tyson Born To Run — Bruce Springsteen Confessions Of A Serial Songwriter — Shelly Peiken Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In (Bernie Sanders) — Bernie Sanders And Mark Ruffalo The Princess Diarist — Carrie Fisher (WINNER) COMEDY FIELD Best Comedy Album: The Age Of Spin & Deep In The Heart Of Texas — Dave Chappelle (WINNER) Cinco — Jim Gaffigan Jerry Before Seinfeld — Jerry Seinfeld A Speck Of Dust — Sarah Silverman What Now? — Kevin Hart MUSICAL THEATER FIELD Best Musical Theater Album: Come From Away — Ian Eisendrath, August Eriksmoen, David Hein, David Lai & Irene Sankoff, producers; David Hein & Irene Sankoff, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast Recording) Dear Evan Hansen — Ben Platt, principal soloist; Alex Lacamoire, Stacey Mindich, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, producers; Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (WINNER) Hello, Dolly! — Bette Midler, principal soloist; Steven Epstein, producer (Jerry Herman, composer & lyricist) (New Broadway Cast Recording) MUSIC FOR VISUAL MEDIA FIELD Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media: Baby Driver — (Various Artists) Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 — (Various Artists) Hidden Figures: The Album — (Various Artists) La La Land — (Various Artists) (WINNER) Moana: The Songs — (Various Artists) Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media: Arrival — Jóhann Jóhannsson, composer Dunkirk — Hans Zimmer, composer Game Of Thrones: Season 7 — Ramin Djawadi, composer Hidden Figures — Benjamin Wallfisch, Pharrell Williams & Hans Zimmer, composers La La Land — Justin Hurwitz, composer (WINNER) Best Song Written For Visual Media: “City Of Stars” — Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, songwriters (Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone) “How Far I’ll Go” — Lin-Manuel Miranda, songwriter (Auli’i Cravalho) (WINNER) “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (‘Fifty Shades Darker’)” — Jack Antonoff, Sam Dew & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Zayn & Taylor Swift) “Never Give Up” — Sia Furler & Greg Kurstin, songwriters (Sia) “Stand Up For Something” — Common & Diane Warren, songwriters (Andra Day Featuring Common) COMPOSING/ ARRANGING FIELD Best Instrumental Composition: “Alkaline” — Pascal Le Boeuf, composer (Le Boeuf Brothers & JACK Quartet) “Choros #3” — Vince Mendoza, composer (Vince Mendoza & WDR Big Band Cologne) “Home Free (For Peter Joe)” — Nate Smith, composer (Nate Smith) “Three Revolutions” — Arturo O’Farrill, composer (Arturo O’Farrill & Chucho Valdés) (WINNER) “Warped Cowboy” — Chuck Owen, composer (Chuck Owen And The Jazz Surge) Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella: “All Hat, No Saddle” — Chuck Owen, arranger (Chuck Owen And The Jazz Surge) “Escapades For Alto Saxophone And Orchestra From Catch Me If You Can” — John Williams, arranger (John Williams) (WINNER) “Home Free (For Peter Joe)” — Nate Smith, arranger (Nate Smith) “Ugly Beauty/Pannonica” — John Beasley, arranger (John Beasley) “White Christmas” — Chris Walden, arranger (Herb Alpert) Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals: “Another Day Of Sun” — Justin Hurwitz, arranger (La La Land Cast) “Every Time We Say Goodbye” — Jorge Calandrelli, arranger (Clint Holmes Featuring Jane Monheit) “I Like Myself” — Joel McNeely, arranger (Seth MacFarlane) “I Loves You Porgy/There’s A Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon For New York” — Shelly Berg, Gregg Field, Gordon Goodwin & Clint Holmes, arrangers (Clint Holmes Featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater And The Count Basie Orchestra) “Putin” — Randy Newman, arranger (Randy Newman) (WINNER) PACKAGE FIELD Best Recording Package: El Orisha De La Rosa — Claudio Roncoli & Cactus Taller, art directors (Magín Díaz) (WINNER) Mura Masa — Alex Crossan & Matt De Jong, art directors (Mura Masa) Pure Comedy (Deluxe Edition) — Sasha Barr, Ed Steed & Josh Tillman, art directors (Father John Misty) (WINNER) Sleep Well Beast — Elyanna Blaser-Gould, Luke Hayman & Andrea Trabucco-Campos, art directors (The National) Solid State — Gail Marowitz, art director (Jonathan Coulton) Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package: Bobo Yeye: Belle Epoque In Upper Volta — Tim Breen, art director (Various Artists) Lovely Creatures: The Best Of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds (1984 – 2014) — Tom Hingston, art director (Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds) May 1977: Get Shown The Light — Masaki Koike, art director (Grateful Dead) The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition — Lawrence Azerrad, Timothy Daly & David Pescovitz, art directors (Various Artists) (WINNER) Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares — Tim Breen, Benjamin Marra & Ken Shipley, art directors (Various Artists) NOTES FIELD Best Album Notes: Arthur Q. Smith: The Trouble With The Truth — Wayne Bledsoe & Bradley Reeves, album notes writers (Various Artists) Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition — Ted Olson, album notes writer (Various Artists) The Complete Piano Works Of Scott Joplin — Bryan S. Wright, album notes writer (Richard Dowling) Edouard-Léon Scott De Martinville, Inventor Of Sound Recording: A Bicentennial Tribute — David Giovannoni, album notes writer (Various Artists) Live At The Whisky A Go Go: The Complete Recordings — Lynell George, album notes writer (Otis Redding) (WINNER) Washington Phillips And His Manzarene Dreams — Michael Corcoran, album notes writer (Washington Phillips) HISTORICAL FIELD Best Historical Album: Bobo Yeye: Belle Epoque In Upper Volta — Jon Kirby, Florent Mazzoleni, Rob Sevier & Ken Shipley, compilation producers; Jeff Lipton & Maria Rice, mastering engineers (Various Artists) The Goldberg Variations – The Complete Unreleased Recording Sessions June 1955 — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Matthias Erb, Martin Kistner & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Glenn Gould) Leonard Bernstein – The Composer — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Martin Kistner & Andreas K. Meyer, mastering engineers (Leonard Bernstein) (WINNER) Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From The Horn Of Africa — Nicolas Sheikholeslami & Vik Sohonie, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Various Artists) Washington Phillips And His Manzarene Dreams — Michael Corcoran, April G. Ledbetter & Steven Lance Ledbetter, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Washington Phillips) PRODUCTION, NON-CLASSICAL FIELD Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical: Every Where Is Some Where — Brent Arrowood, Miles Comaskey, JT Daly, Tommy English, Kristine Flaherty, Adam Hawkins, Chad Howat & Tony Maserati, engineers; Joe LaPorta, mastering engineer (K.Flay) Is This The Life We Really Want? — Nigel Godrich, Sam Petts-Davies & Darrell Thorp, engineers; Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer (Roger Waters) Natural Conclusion — Ryan Freeland, engineer; Joao Carvalho, mastering engineer (Rose Cousins) No Shape — Shawn Everett & Joseph Lorge, engineers; Patricia Sullivan, mastering engineer (Perfume Genius) 24K Magic — Serban Ghenea, John Hanes & Charles Moniz, engineers; Tom Coyne, mastering engineer (Bruno Mars) (WINNER) Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical: Calvin Harris Greg Kurstin (WINNER) Blake Mills No I.D. The Stereotypes Best Remixed Recording: “Can’t Let You Go (Louie Vega Roots Mix)” — Louie Vega, remixer (Loleatta Holloway) “Funk O’ De Funk (SMLE Remix)” — SMLE, remixers (Bobby Rush) “Undercover (Adventure Club Remix)” — Leighton James & Christian Srigley, remixers (Kehlani) “A Violent Noise (Four Tet Remix)” — Four Tet, remixer (The xx) “You Move (Latroit Remix)” — Dennis White, remixer (Depeche Mode) (WINNER) SURROUND SOUND FIELD Best Surround Sound Album: Early Americans — Jim Anderson, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Jim Anderson & Jane Ira Bloom, surround producers (Jane Ira Bloom) (WINNER) Kleiberg: Mass For Modern Man — Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Eivind Gullberg Jensen & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra And Choir) So Is My Love — Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Nina T. Karlsen & Ensemble 96) 3-D The Catalogue — Fritz Hilpert, surround mix engineer; Tom Ammermann, surround mastering engineer; Fritz Hilpert, surround producer (Kraftwerk) Tyberg: Masses — Jesse Brayman, surround mix engineer; Jesse Brayman, surround mastering engineer; Blanton Alspaugh, surround producer (Brian A. Schmidt, Christopher Jacobson & South Dakota Chorale) PRODUCTION, CLASSICAL FIELD Best Engineered Album, Classical: Danielpour: Songs Of Solitude & War Songs — Gary Call, engineer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony) Kleiberg: Mass For Modern Man — Morten Lindberg, engineer (Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Trondheim Vokalensemble & Trondheim Symphony Orchestra) Schoenberg, Adam: American Symphony; Finding Rothko; Picture Studies — Keith O. Johnson & Sean Royce Martin, engineers (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony) Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio — Mark Donahue, engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) (WINNER) Tyberg: Masses — John Newton, engineer; Jesse Brayman, mastering engineer (Brian A. Schmidt, Christopher Jacobson & South Dakota Chorale) Producer Of The Year, Classical: Blanton Alspaugh Manfred Eicher David Frost (WINNER) Morten Lindberg Judith Sherman CLASSICAL FIELD Best Orchestral Performance: Concertos For Orchestra — Louis Langrée, conductor (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) Copland: Symphony No. 3; Three Latin American Sketches — Leonard Slatkin, conductor (Detroit Symphony Orchestra) Debussy: Images; Jeux & La Plus Que Lente — Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor (San Francisco Symphony) Mahler: Symphony No. 5 — Osmo Vänskä, conductor (Minnesota Orchestra) Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio — Manfred Honeck, conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) (WINNER) Best Opera Recording: Berg: Lulu — Lothar Koenigs, conductor; Daniel Brenna, Marlis Petersen & Johan Reuter; Jay David Saks, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) Berg: Wozzeck — Hans Graf, conductor; Anne Schwanewilms & Roman Trekel; Hans Graf, producer (Houston Symphony; Chorus Of Students And Alumni, Shepherd School Of Music, Rice University & Houston Grand Opera Children’s Chorus) (WINNER) Bizet: Les Pêcheurs De Perles — Gianandrea Noseda, conductor; Diana Damrau, Mariusz Kwiecień, Matthew Polenzani & Nicolas Testé; Jay David Saks, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus) Handel: Ottone — George Petrou, conductor; Max Emanuel Cencic & Lauren Snouffer; Jacob Händel, producer (Il Pomo D’Oro) Rimsky-Korsakov: The Golden Cockerel — Valery Gergiev, conductor; Vladimir Feliauer, Aida Garifullina & Kira Loginova; Ilya Petrov, producer (Mariinsky Orchestra; Mariinsky Chorus) Best Choral Performance: Bryars: The Fifth Century — Donald Nally, conductor (PRISM Quartet; The Crossing) (WINNER) Handel: Messiah — Andrew Davis, conductor; Noel Edison, chorus master (Elizabeth DeShong, John Relyea, Andrew Staples & Erin Wall; Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Toronto Mendelssohn Choir) Mansurian: Requiem — Alexander Liebreich, conductor; Florian Helgath, chorus master (Anja Petersen & Andrew Redmond; Münchener Kammerorchester; RIAS Kammerchor) Music Of The Spheres — Nigel Short, conductor (Tenebrae) Tyberg: Masses — Brian A. Schmidt, conductor (Christopher Jacobson; South Dakota Chorale) Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: Buxtehude: Trio Sonatas, Op. 1 — Arcangelo Death & The Maiden — Patricia Kopatchinskaja & The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (WINNER) Divine Theatre – Sacred Motets By Giaches De Wert — Stile Antico Franck, Kurtág, Previn & Schumann — Joyce Yang & Augustin Hadelich Martha Argerich & Friends – Live From Lugano 2016 — Martha Argerich & Various Artists Best Classical Instrumental Solo: Bach: The French Suites — Murray Perahia Haydn: Cello Concertos — Steven Isserlis; Florian Donderer, conductor (The Deutsch Kammerphilharmonie Bremen) Levina: The Piano Concertos — Maria Lettberg; Ariane Matiakh, conductor (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin) Shostakovich: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 — Frank Peter Zimmermann; Alan Gilbert, conductor (NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester) Transcendental — Daniil Trifonov (WINNER) Best Classical Solo Vocal Album: Bach & Telemann: Sacred Cantatas — Philippe Jaroussky; Petra Müllejans, conductor (Ann-Kathrin Brüggemann & Juan de la Rubia; Freiburger Barockorchester) Crazy Girl Crazy – Music By Gershwin, Berg & Berio — Barbara Hannigan (Orchestra Ludwig) (WINNER) Gods & Monsters — Nicholas Phan; Myra Huang, accompanist In War & Peace – Harmony Through Music — Joyce DiDonato; Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor (Il Pomo D’Oro) Sviridov: Russia Cast Adrift — Dmitri Hvorostovsky; Constantine Orbelian, conductor (St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra & Style Of Five Ensemble) Best Classical Compendium: Barbara — Alexandre Tharaud; Cécile Lenoir, producer Higdon: All Things Majestic, Viola Concerto & Oboe Concerto — Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Tim Handley, producer (WINNER) Kurtág: Complete Works For Ensemble & Choir — Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor; Guido Tichelman, producer Les Routes De L’Esclavage — Jordi Savall, conductor; Benjamin Bleton, producer Mademoiselle: Première Audience – Unknown Music Of Nadia Boulanger — Lucy Mauro; Lucy Mauro, producer Best Contemporary Classical Composition: Danielpour: Songs Of Solitude — Richard Danielpour, composer (Thomas Hampson, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony) Higdon: Viola Concerto — Jennifer Higdon, composer (Roberto Díaz, Giancarlo Guerrero & Nashville Symphony) (WINNER) Mansurian: Requiem — Tigran Mansurian, composer (Alexander Liebreich, Florian Helgath, RIAS Kammerchor & Münchener Kammerorchester) Schoenberg, Adam: Picture Studies — Adam Schoenberg, composer (Michael Stern & Kansas City Symphony) Zhou Tian: Concerto For Orchestra — Zhou Tian, composer (Louis Langrée & Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) MUSIC VIDEO/FILM FIELD Best Music Video: “Up All Night” — Beck “Makeba” — Jain “The Story Of O.J.” — Jay-Z “Humble.” — Kendrick Lamar (WINNER) “1-800-273-8255” — Logic Featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid Best Music Film: “One More Time With Feeling” — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “Long Strange Trip” — (The Grateful Dead) “The Defiant Ones” — (Various Artists) (WINNER) “Soundbreaking” — (Various Artists) “Two Trains Runnin’” — (Various Artists)

Being a child actor seems great, but not every kid wants acting to be their forever career. For many former child actors, choosing to leave the business was the best thing that ever happened to them. Although they could have had it all, it wasn’t necessarily their agenda to continue a life in Hollywood once they grew up. For those child stars who were on television shows, leaving acting behind isn’t the easiest thing. They have to figure out how to make a life for themselves where they might be recognized for who they used to be. It’s not like most people want to be remembered most for something they used to do when they were a kid. It’s surprising to learn that plenty of child actors go into regular careers. Many of them choose to live relatively quiet lives out of the spotlight. It just takes some time for them to get used to it. It’s especially strange for child actors having to leave their television shows. It’s a major change and not everyone is interested in starting something new after a long run on a show. For those child actors who choose to leave the spotlight after their television shows have ended, it’s great. However, a lot of fans always wonder about what happened to their favorite child actors. Here are the 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show. 15. ANGUS T. JONES (TWO AND A HALF MEN) Angus T. Jones Two and a Half Men Grown Up Retired 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show ADVERTISING [X] Angus T. Jones was living it big while on Two and a Half Men. The young actor was in fact one of the most well-paid child actors of his time. However, after years of working on a show opposite Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and eventually Ashton Kutcher, Jones essentially left Hollywood for good. Now 24, Jones went to college at University of Colorado Boulder after leaving the CBS sitcom. He claimed that he didn’t want to be part of the show any longer due to his religious views. Jones insinuated that working on the show went against what he believes in as a religious person, going so far as to calling the show that made him famous absolute “fifth”. He has only made rare appearances since ending his time on television. 14. JOSH SAVIANO (WONDER YEARS) Josh Saviano Wonder Years Best Friend Actor 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show ADVERTISING [X] Josh Saviano portrayed Paul Pfeiffer, the best friend to Kevin Arnold, on the classic television show, The Wonder Years. Since then though, he’s only made one other official appearance since the series and that was on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2014 to 2016. After The Wonder Years ended, Saviano ended up choosing to go on the academic path instead. Saviano ended up going to Yale University where he majored in political science. Afterwards, he pursued his Doctor of Law degree from Yeshiva University and shortly after, he became a lawyer in New York. This is how he ended up doing Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. While he no longer acts, Saviano made an appearance on the show as a lawyer, bringing his two worlds together. He hasn’t made an onscreen appearance since then. 13. LINDSAY RIDGEWAY (BOY MEETS WORLD) Morgan Boy Meets World Lindsay 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Corey and Eric’s little sister on Boy Meets World had her own mysterious backstory. The actress who originally portrayed Morgan Matthews left the show early on. Morgan disappeared for a while, only for Lindsay Ridgeway to appear in the role in season 3. The show addressed Morgan’s disappearance briefly, saying she had just been in time out for a long time and that’s why she was missing. Since becoming the second Morgan, Ridgeway hasn’t appeared in much else, although she did reprise her role as Morgan on Disney’s Girl Meets World. Ridgeway chose to leave acting after Boy Meets World ended and went to school. She has a degree in political science and a master’s in counseling. However, she hasn’t left performing completely behind and can occasionally be spotted singing the national anthem at sporting events. 12. TARAN NOAH SMITH (HOME IMPROVEMENT) Taran Noah Smith Home Improvement Actor 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Taran Noah Smith portrayed Mark Taylor, the youngest of the Taylor sons, on Tim Allen’s Home Improvement. Having spent a huge chunk of his childhood on the show, Smith made a lot of money before he was even allowed to spend it. Sadly, that money became an issue for him and he ended up taking his parents to court for it when he was 18. Besides that, Smith also had some other drama including marrying a woman almost twice his age when he was only 17. All of this happened right after the show had ended, leaving him very little time for acting. Smith wanted to explore a different life. He eventually divorced his wife and started focusing on doing other things. He’s mostly been seen while doing major volunteering projects. 11. ADAM LAMBERG (LIZZIE MCGUIRE) Adam Lamburg Gordo Lizzie McGuire Grown Up 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show ADVERTISING [X] Adam Lamberg spent his teen years portraying David “Gordo” Gordon on Disney’s hit show, Lizzie McGuire. The actor played Lizzie’s best friend who also had a crush on her. Having started acting when he was in middle school, Hollywood seemed like a great fit for Lamberg. However, he only had two minor roles after Lizzie McGuire ended and hasn’t had an onscreen credit since. Lamberg left the business for a number of reasons. While Gordo was the right role for him, finding other roles that worked for him wasn’t the easiest. He also ended up going to school where he majored in geography. Lamberg shows no signs of ever stepping back into the spotlight. He is currently the development officer at the Irish Arts Center in New York and happy living his own life away from the spotlight. 10. ANGELA WATSON (STEP BY STEP) Angela Watson Step by Step Actress 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show ADVERTISING [X] Angela Watson portrayed Karen Foster on the hit family classic, Step by Step. Since the show ended in 1998 however, she has hardly made an appearance onscreen. Besides being on the show, Watson was a model, having found her start in beauty pageants. Having only been in high school when the show started, Watson ended her time on Step by Step in her twenties. Like too many other child stars though, Watson found out her parents had taken a good chunk of her millions for themselves. Instead of being spiteful, Watson ended up taking them to court and winning. In order to help other young actors, Watson became a SAG representative and focused on helping protect young actors. This also inspired her to focus more on charity work, rather than a career in acting. 9. MATTHEW UNDERWOOD (ZOEY 101) Matthew Underwood Zoey 101 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show ADVERTISING [X] Having portrayed the obnoxious, self-absorbed, “good looking” guy on Zoey 101, Matthew Underwood hasn’t done much acting since the show abruptly ended in 2008. When the show ended, Underwood was a legal adult, but this actually led to some problems. Underwood was in his early twenties when he was caught by police. The actor had marijuana on him at the time. However, he was also with a 17 year old female minor. He was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, but moved on with his life. Sadly later, he violated his probation and that caused a whole mess of problems. Last year though, when Underwood was 26, he showed that he had grown up as he miraculously saved a baby from a car after it crashed. He was a bystander in the accident and the parents of the baby had overdosed while driving. 8. MIKE LOOKINLAND (THE BRADY BUNCH) Bobby Brady Mike Lookinland The Brady Bunch 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Mike Lookinland played the youngest son, Bobby Brady, on The Brady Bunch. The actor is best known for his role as Bobby and has very few roles outside of portraying that character. He has reprised Bobby multiple times since the show officially ended in 1974. Although, there have been plenty of other spinoffs that have come from the series. After his time of being Bobby ended, Lookinland became a camera operator. He even worked on Everwood for a while. That lasted until about 2007 and has instead turned his focus onto his concrete business in Utah. He has a wife who worked as a script supervisor. She hasn’t had a credit since 2007 either, most likely to focus on her life in Utah with Lookinland and their kids. 7. RYAN SOMMERS BAUM (THE FAMOUS JET JACKSON) Ryan Sommers Baum Famous Jett Jackson 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Ryan Sommers Baum had a very short time in Hollywood. Besides one other role, he’s only known for portraying J.B. Halliburton on Disney’s The Famous Jett Jackson. After the show ended, Baum when to NYU to focus on theatre. He took a detour after that though and went to Divinity school instead. He became an ordained minister and chose to never go back to acting again. Baum’s name has now changed to Ryan Dowell Baum. This happened after he married his wife, Molly Dowell. He’s had a radio program and done plenty of volunteer work and travelling. Having thought his life was going to be focused around acting, Baum found his true passion in ministry. The only time he was brought back to his Disney days was after he spoke about his sadness regarding the suicide of his former costar, Lee Thompson Young. FEATURED 20 Secrets You Didn’t Know About The Olsens 20 Secrets You Didn’t Know About The Olsens Characters Marvel Still Doesn’t Have The Movie Rights To Characters Marvel Still Doesn’t Have The Movie Rights To Comic Sales Figures Prove To Marvel: Diversity Isn’t The Problem Comic Sales Figures Prove To Marvel: Diversity Isn’t The Problem ADVERTISING [X] 6. ASHLIE BRILLAULT (LIZZIE MCGUIRE) Kate Sanders Lizzie McGuire Actress Group 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Ashlie Brillault portrayed Kate Sanders on Disney’s Lizzie McGuire. Kate was the subject of many episodes as she was Lizzie’s former friend turned mean girl. With the exception of only one other acting credit, Billault’s only roles involved portraying Kate Sanders. After Lizzie McGuire ended, Brillault went to college and received a B.A. in political science. She became a lawyer, wanting to focus on the criminal justice reform. Everything was put on hold though after she and her husband had a daughter. Regardless of where life seems to take her, Brillault shows absolutely no interest in ever going back to acting as she has high aspirations for both her career as a lawyer and her life as a wife and mom. 5. JASON ZIMBLER (CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL) Jason Zimbler Clarissa Explains It All Little Brother 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Known as Clarissa’s annoying little brother, Ferguson Darling, on Clarissa Explains It All, Jason Zimbler chose to stop working in Hollywood after the show ended in 1994. While the show was supposed to continue, Nickelodeon thought Clarissa was too old for their viewers. Zimbler ended up going to the University of Notre Dame for college after the show was cancelled and graduated with a degree in business administration. After working towards that degree, he received a graduate degree in theatre directing. Zimbler has done many things. While he continued to perform onstage, he chose to not go back to performing onscreen. He even founded his own theatre company. He didn’t stray too far away from the business either and has been credited with working as a software designer for HBO. 4. CHELSEA BRUMMET (ALL THAT) Chelsea Brummet All That Gilmore Girls 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Chelsea Brummet was an All That regular. The Nickelodeon darling made a few other appearances too on shows such as Drake & Josh and What I Like About You. She is also known for having portrayed a younger Lorelai on Gilmore Girls. However, she truly was known for being on All That, having done the show for five years. Since then, she has had a few acting roles, but has pretty much disappeared. She regularly posts on Facebook, but isn’t into sharing everything about her life on social media. She chooses to live her own life and isn’t that interested in returning back to the spotlight. Her last acting credit is from 2012 when she did six episodes of a television show called Aspen the Series. 3. MELISSA MCINTYRE (DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION) Ashley Degrassi the Next Generation 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Melissa McIntyre portrayed Ashley Kerwin on Degrassi: The Next Generation. She worked closely with Drake, back when he was better known as Aubrey Graham. The two portrayed a couple on the show for a bit. Although most of her castmates went on to continue pursing some sort of entertainment career, McIntyre has led a pretty quiet life since her time on the show ended. In fact, she hasn’t had an acting credit since then. While she might not desire a public life, she’s supposedly still in touch with many of her former Degrassi castmates. The last time she was really seen though was in 2012 when she was working as a singer with J.D. Fortune. Other than that, she hasn’t really done much else in entertainment and shows no signs of returning to acting anytime soon. 2. KYLE SWANN (NED’S DECLASSIFIED SCHOOL SURVIVAL GUIDE) Billy Loomer Neds Declassified School Survival Guide 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Kyle Swann was the bully with a heart (and no brain) on Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. Having portrayed Billy Loomer, a regular character on the show, Swann had started his career off right. He had some major roles on his resume for a while there. However, he essentially quit acting after the show ended in 2007. Swann went to college after the show ended. He started attending the University of California, Santa Cruz and graduated with a B.A. in Marine Biology in 2012. He created his own photography business where he combines the two things he loves: scuba diving and taking pictures. His company’s called Swann Dive Photography. He has obviously taken himself out of Hollywood and has chosen a different life for himself instead. 1. BRANDON CALL (STEP BY STEP) Brandon Call Step by Step Actor 15 Child Stars Who Disappeared From The Spotlight After Just One Show Brandon Call has an easily recognizable face. He starred in the family comedy series, Step by Step as J.T. Lambert. While Call had plenty of acting credits throughout his childhood, he essentially left acting behind after Step by Step ended. During his time on the show, he went through a lot, including being shot in both arms after a road rage argument turned for the worse. Once the show ended, he chose to move on from acting and all the stress that it brought him in his life. Call has led a very quiet life since the show ended. He has a daughter who was born in 1998, the same year Step by Step ended. Many fans speculate that he works at his family’s business, but those are just guesses. Either way, Call chose to leave acting, deciding it wasn’t for him after all.

Since the unification of the Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all comic book movies, or superhero movies, have started to aim toward film franchises; producing several films along the same character lines, and connecting them together in a long narrative that ratchets up suspense at the end of each movie. To aid them in their task, the creative teams behind these projects have decades of source material and a million directions to go and a million fans who all want their favorite story told. For audiences, this presents a television style serial format that rewards close watching. Fans can go to the movies and check in on their favorite team and see full backstories for each of their favorite characters. Behind the scenes, producers, directors and screenwriters are stitching the story together piece by piece as they go, simultaneously constructing the connective tissue, taking hints, clues and ideas from the comic book canon and inserting them into the cinematic retelling. Not every loose end gets tied however, so every allusion to hidden powers or comics lore doesn’t pay off in a faithful, or even any, on screen representation. Here are 15 times easter eggs like those were inserted into superhero movies, but they just went absolutely nowhere. 15. THE WOLVERINE – CLASSIC, BROWN AND YELLOW UNIFORM wolverine suit from the movie 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere ADVERTISING [X] Before Robert Downey Jr. showed the world that superheroes really did exist in real life, Hugh Jackman was blazing the trail as the Wolverine since the year 2000, in X-Men. The best part of seeing the Wolverine on screen is how much life Jackman was able to breath into the character without ever wearing the costume he’s most known for. In a deleted scene from 2013’s The Wolverine, it looks like director James Mangold at least thought about revealing the old costume. A deleted scene only shows the retired X-Man opening up a case to show the uniform, then falling into reminiscent reverie, but even that didn’t quite fit into the on screen version. Fans hoped that the costume would make another appearance in Mangold’s 2017 follow up, Logan, but to no avail. 14. THOR – DONALD BLAKE Thor Don Blake ID 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere ADVERTISING [X] In the first Thor movie, audiences are introduced to the God of Thunder in his first visit to Earth, where he eventually meets Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman). The transition into humanity wasn’t too much of a problem for Thor, except for when he’s captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. the first time. To ensure his release, Dr. Selvig, (Stellan Skarsgård), employs the identity of Donald Blake to explain Thor’s mysterious appearance. The movie leaves the name drop there, but fans of the Thor comic will recognize “Dr. Donald Blake” as the far better developed alter ego that Thor assumed for many years on the page. So far in the MCU, Thor has been bouncing between planets, trying to rule realms and conquer villains, but if he ever tries to settle down, Natalie Portman may have moved on, but the Donald Blake alias will be waiting for him here on Earth. 13. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – HOWARD THE DUCK Howard The Duck Guardians of the Galaxy Cameo 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy bucked a lot of tropes of superhero cinema in 2012. Guardians was one of the first movies to embrace the absurdity of people zooming around in space, in multicolored costumes, battling alien warlords. Audiences were rewarded with a fun, frolicking, superhero movie that made laughing at itself priority one. The inclusion of Howard the Duck in the post credits scene was keeping with that tone. Howard reprised his role in Guardians 2, voiced by Seth Green, but the character still hasn’t played a big role or, even been explained at all. Making his comic book debut back in 1973, Howard has never really been about explaining himself anyway, he’s just a Duck from outer space, trying to make his way in this crazy Marvelized world, just like us all. 12. X-MEN APOCALYPSE – ESSEX CORPORATION Logan Easter Egg Rice Transigen Essex 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere A young Colonel William Stryker heads up the ‘Weapon X’ program in 2016’s X-Men Apocalypse, capturing Wolverine in the film before eventually being overshadowed by the title villain. In the post credits scene, agents from an “Essex Corporation” ominously clean up the destroyed laboratory on Alkali Lake. The Essex Corporation is the front for the supervillain Mister Sinister, also known as Nathaniel Essex. In the comics, Mister Sinister is an evil super genius obsessed with genetic engineering and experimenting on mutants alongside frequent collaborator, Apocalypse. It seems like that scene left audiences hanging on purpose, so even if it’s taking longer than expected, we haven’t seen the last of the Essex Corporation. 11. GREEN LANTERN – CAROL FERRIS, AKA STAR SAPPHIRE blake lively green lantern 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere ADVERTISING [X] When Green Lantern came out it 2011, it may not have resonated with mainstream audiences or been a critical success, but there’s a lot for the Green Lantern fan in that movie. Ryan Reynolds, who played Hal Jordan, is a noted comic book fan, but also, the screenplay was written by Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, two guys who would go on to construct the Arrowverse on the CW, so the story makes no compromises on DC lore. One of those nods to the great Green Lantern legacy is a hint that Carol Ferris, played by Blake Lively in the movie, will later become the super powered Star Sapphire. The movie just shows a purple decal on her flight helmet, but that’s the symbol she’ll go on to adopt in her later career. Maybe we’ll see more of Carol Ferris, Star Sapphire, and how she makes the transformation once DC works up the courage to revisit the film franchise. 10. THE INCREDIBLE HULK – WEAPONS PLUS Incredible Hulk Weapons Plus Easter Egg 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere ADVERTISING [X] 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, starring Edward Norton, in the end, didn’t offer a take on the character that stuck, but it gave fans some great easter eggs. Early in the movie, when they’re transporting the Super Serum, the case indicates that it belongs to the “Weapons PLUS” program. It’s never explained on screen, but the Weapons Plus program connects a lot of the MCU. Explained by the comics, Weapons PLUS is a secret government program that lay behind, not only the Super Serum that goes on to create Captain America, but also projects that create Wolverine and Deadpool. Weapons PLUS and its subsidiaries aim to create super soldiers for government use, but in most cases, complications arise and villains take advantage of the serum’s more nefarious applications. 9. THE AVENGERS – APPEARANCE OF HUGIN AND MUNIN Odin Raven 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere ADVERTISING [X] Central to 2012’s The Avengers was the family dynamic that continued to be teased out between Thor and his Asgardian royal family. Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, did his harshest heel turn, acting the outright villain this time in his mission to control the Tesseract. Early in the film when he’s first confronted by Thor, they have a raging battle. Behind them, two Ravens are conspicuously inserted into the frame. This easter egg actually may compound the family drama in that scene. Hugin and Munin are the names of two ravens, inspired by Norse mythology, in Marvel comics canon. They act as the agents of Odin, brothers, surveying the nine realms. They’ve popped up here and again in the MCU, but are never explained or served any plot points; just vigilantly keeping watch. 8. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER – THE ORIGINAL HUMAN TORCH Superhero Movie Easter Eggs Captain America Human Torch 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere A lot of people are coming to comic books and superheroes for the first time with the MCU movies, which is great, and a huge part of the point of developing these characters. With so many new fans, it’s easy to forget just how long these heroes have been around and how long these characters have really been in development. In Captain America: The First Avenger, a certain easter egg reveals the history of comic book heroes. During the Stark Expo scene, a display case holds a fire suit, an homage to the original Human Torch. Before Johnny Storm was the sparky little brother of the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch was created in 1939, back when Marvel was still called Timely Comics. This is one of the first superheroes Marvel ever created. Now, that hero is referenced in a movie that stars Chris Evans, currently as Captain America, but who formerly played Johnny Storm in a Fantastic Four movie, a franchise that Marvel struggled to keep control of. It’s perfect cinematic symbolism for just how much depth the our favorite superhero characters come from. 7. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – COSMO: THE TELEPATHIC DOG Guardians of the Galaxy Disneyland ride Cosmo 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere In 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy brought together an unlikely space team and set the whole adventure to 80s music while audiences were introduced to characters most had never heard of before. In addition to the characters already on the MCU Guardians team, the comic source material has several rotating members leaving and joining the team as needed. Cosmo the Spacedog is one of these members. Cosmo appears in the first movie as part of The Collector’s collection and then just as an image in the second. This may indicate his appearance in future films and he’d certainly be a fun addition to the team. Cosmo is a sentient dog (along the lines of Rocket Raccoon) originally launched into space in the 1960s by the Soviet space program, but he’s a good guy now and he’s a telepathic genius, so, super useful to have around. FEATURED 20 Secrets You Didn’t Know About The Olsens 20 Secrets You Didn’t Know About The Olsens Characters Marvel Still Doesn’t Have The Movie Rights To Characters Marvel Still Doesn’t Have The Movie Rights To Comic Sales Figures Prove To Marvel: Diversity Isn’t The Problem Comic Sales Figures Prove To Marvel: Diversity Isn’t The Problem ADVERTISING [X] 6. MAN OF STEEL – EMPTY POD Man of Steel Pod Easter Egg 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere In 2014, audiences believed a man could be made of steel when they watched Zach Snyder’s Superman take. Audiences once again met Superman, this time in the form of Henry Cavill and his super chin. In one scene in the ambitious origin story, Superman is investigating the ship that crash landed in the Arctic. He happens upon a bay of cryogenic beds. Most of the pods hold the remains of Kyptonians who came to scout Earth in the earlier mission, but in the background, one pod is ajar and empty. The empty cryo-chamber is never explained later in the movie. It’s possible that there just happened to be one extra pod on the ship that the crew wasn’t using or it’s possible that another Kryptonian has been on Earth all along… 5. IRON MAN – ROXXON CORPORATION Roxxon Corporation Iron Man 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere At the end of Iron Man, back in 2008, during the final battle between Stane and Stark, the Roxxon Corporation brand name can be scene in the background on one of the buildings. Roxxon pops up repeatedly in the MCU, on the big and small screen. Later in the Iron Man sequels, Roxxon is connected to energy and oil tankers, but that’s the extent of the allusions so far. In the comic universe, Roxxon is a frequently antagonistic corporation, bent on energy domination and superhero creation. In pursuit of these goals, they frequently cross purposes with Marvel heroes regarding the nuclear, alien, or supernatural power sources they safeguard. Iron Man comes into conflict with Roxxon the most, operating, as they both do, in the industrial business arena, but also because, according to comics canon, the Roxxon corporation is responsible for the death of his parents. 4. THE AVENGERS – PROJECT P.E.G.A.S.U.S. AND PROJECT 42 Project Pegasus in MCU 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere In the first Avengers movie, Joss Whedon got the opportunity to bring all six characters together to form the super team on screen for the first time. A self proclaimed nerd himself, Whedon included no lack of fan service in the first film. In the beginning of the movie, when Agent Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. are being introduced to Tony Stark, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. and Project 42 are both name dropped. Later in the movie, the purpose of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. is alluded to, being the temporary Earth laboratory to study the Tesseract. In the comics, it’s expanded to research all forms of alternative energy. It’s a common target of villains and a great place for heroes to track down information or get into scrapes. Project 42 is a little bit more devious and even more subtly referenced in the movies. During a comic book event called ‘Civil War’, in which Marvel’s heroes battled each other, a prison was created to detain super powered dissidents. That prison, housed in negative space, was codenamed Project 42. 3. X2 – REMY LEBEAU X2 Gambit Remy Easter Egg 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere The first live action X-Men movie brought superheroes to 21st century, and the sequel, released in 2003, continued the story of Xavier’s mutants. The school and its mutant students come under attack when a crazy General William Stryker resumes a black ops government program, Weapon X. Elsewhere Mystique is attempting to break Magneto out of prison and resurrect the Brotherhood of Mutants. In one scene, Mystique is infiltrating a Pentagon computer system to find out how to locate Magneto. As she’s copying files, a file for a mutant named “Remy Lebeau” scrolls past the screen. There’s other interesting names on the lsit too, like the Maximoff twins, but they do end up making an appearance. Remy Lebeau is the given name of the mutant Gambit, a mutant and frequent X-Man from the comics, created in 1990. Gambit has become a fan favorite probably because of his New Orleans accent, suave demeanor, and some pretty on-brand card throwing powers. Gambit has not yet made it to the silver screen, but the fan support is there, and rumors have circulated, on and off, about a Channing Tatum led project. 2. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 – FELICIA HARDY Felicia Hardy Felicity Jones 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere In 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Andrew Garfield squares off against Jamie Foxx’s Electro. Harry Osborn returns in this movie also, played by Dane Dehaan, eventually resuming the mantle of the Green Goblin. As Harry guides Oscorp through the scandal of creating Electro, audiences are introduced to his assistant, Felicia Hardy. In the movie, Felicia plays a key role in the eventual scheme, but the character, played by the great Felicity Jones (Rogue One), doesn’t get much else to do. In the comics, Hardy develops into a superhero of her own kind, prowling through the night as Black Cat. She’s not the straight and narrow hero archetype like Peter Parker, often dancing with ethically questionable methods. Spider-Man crosses paths, teams up, and even is tempted by a forbidden romance with Black Cat, but none of this has been covered on screen. At least not yet; fans can expect many more Spider-Man movies and we’re hoping Felicia Hardy will have bigger role in future adaptations. 1. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON – JOCASTA Jocasta Age of Ultron Easter Egg 15 Superhero Movie Easter Eggs That Went Nowhere In Avengers: Age of Ultron, the primary villain, Ultron, comes to sentience when his programming infects the JARVIS AI that Tony Stark uses to power every moment of his life. After JARVIS broke bad, Tony Stark is trying to replace him; as he’s flipping through storage drives, one labeled “Jocasta” is seen near the edge of the frame. In the comics, Jocasta is the wife of Ultron, another fully fledged AI character in her own right. She has yet to make her debut in the MCU. Even though Ultron’s character felt a little bit too robotic on screen, exploring more artificial intelligence based themes may be an interesting direction for Marvel villainy. Maybe someday soon audiences will see the Avengers battling two robots who are just struggling for domestic bliss and world domination.

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Album of the Month February: Poll is up! Check it out, and vote for your favorite! What should be the next AotM? Louane - Louane (2017) Gomez- Bring It On (1998) Bettye LaVette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook (2010) Pianos Become the Teeth - Keep You (2014)

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