film

Netflix has struck a licensing agreement with a hot new independent studio that means more first-run movies for subscribers of Netflix's streaming service.

FilmDistrict, the company co-founded by Graham King, who produced such Oscar-winning as "The Departed" and "Aviator," has agreed to license first-run theatrically-released films through Netflix, the companies announced today.

Among the first flicks Netflix is expected to receive rights to under the deal are "Drive," director Nicolas Winding Refn's adaptation of the James Sallis' crime tale starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, and the science-fiction film "Lockout," … Read more

Microsoft wants to build a pay-TV subscription service to offer to Xbox Live customers, according to a published report.

Citing two anonymous sources, Reuters reported today that Microsoft has spoken with media companies about licensing "TV networks."

The talks are in the early stages, according to the report from the wire service, but some of Microsoft's proposals include offering individual channels, such as HBO or Showtime, directly or "using Xbox to authenticate existing cable subscribers to watch shows with enhanced interactivity similar to how pay TV operators have sought to do over the Web," Reuters … Read more

If you're a Netflix subscriber, you should be happy with the sounds coming out of Hollywood.

One entertainment executive told me last week that other Web video companies looking for content should use Netflix as a model for how to work with the major studios. He called the company a "good partner," high praise coming from an industry in which few have anything good to say about Internet companies. This bodes well for Netflix's chances of obtaining more streaming content. When it comes to the studios' complaints about Netflix, there's also something positive to be … Read more

Near the beginning of the decade, several solar start-ups set out to disrupt the solar power industry by producing a new generation of thin-film solar cells that were vastly cheaper to make than the incumbent silicon cell technology.

Now, many of those thin-film solar companies are in a race for their survival, according to a report published today.

Lux Research did an analysis of the competing solar cell technologies and found that polycrystalline silicon, the material used for about 80 percent of solar cells, continues to have staying power as prices decline and efficiencies improve.

Meanwhile, solar panels made from … Read more

The studios were preparing to cut and run from digital distribution in fall 2009, the last time I spoke at length with Eric Garland, CEO and co-founder of Big Champagne.

Big Champagne tracks the legal and illegal consumption of digital media online and sells the data mostly to music labels and film studios. Few people possess such a clear view of how the digital strategies employed by entertainment companies are faring.

On a visit to Los Angeles last fall, I discovered a film industry with growing skepticism about the Web as a distribution tool. The legal services weren't generating … Read more

As Netflix revenues soar and as Hulu ponders a $300 million public offering, a group of people who played an enormous part in the brightening prospects of Web TV is very much overlooked.

Managers at the major Hollywood studios: Disney, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount, NBC Universal, and Sony Pictures are pretty much despised in tech land allegedly for their anti-innovation and protectionist ways, but the record shows that, over the past year, they have helped build the foundation for Netflix's success and are embracing digital distribution like never before.

Last summer, the studios signed unprecedented licensing deals … Read more

Thin-film solar-panel maker Solyndra will announce today it plans to close its Fab 1 plant in Fremont, Calif., The New York Times has reported.

The closing will result in 40 Solyndra employees being laid off. Another 150 subcontractors will not have their current work contracts renewed, according to the report.

But the news follows the opening of Solyndra's state-of-the-art Fab 2 plant near its original Fremont plant just weeks ago, which was built in part with a $535 million federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.

The Fab 2 plant, when fully operational, is capable of producing 500-megawatts … Read more

In a move sure to outrage both file-traders on BitTorrent networks and legal watchdogs, a well-known pornographer has filed a federal copyright suit against 7,098 individuals.

Axel Braun Productions filed the complaint Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, alleging that the defendants illegally shared the adult film "Batman XXX: A Porn Parody." The film was written and directed by Axel Braun and distributed by Vivid Entertainment, one of the country's best known porn studios.

In an interview about the suit with Xbiz Newswire, a publication that follows the adult-film … Read more

Confused, angry, and scared is how the accused film pirates come to Robert Talbot.

As of last week, Talbot, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, was representing 23 people accused by independent film studios of copyright violations. In lawsuits filed against thousands of people from across the country, the filmmakers allege that the defendants distributed unauthorized copies of their movies, such as the Academy Award-winning "The Hurt Locker," across file-sharing networks.

Talbot guesses that no other copyright lawyer in the country defends as many accused file sharers. His program's allure is obvious. He possesses … Read more