warner bros

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Sony launches Sony Music Unlimited, the company's own music store.

The FBI gets ready to outline wire-tapping policies for digital communication.

Google announces Google One Pass, a subscription service for newspapers and magazines that will compete with Apple's recently announced iTunes subscription service.

The iPhone rumor mill is predicting a smaller, $99 version of the iPhone this summer.

Warner Bros. announces App Editions of "Inception" and "The Dark Knight."

Sony announces its zero-tolerance policy for hacking the PlayStation 3.

The more Facebook friends you have, the more … Read more

Not long ago, ambitious young executives at the six major Hollywood film studios maneuvered to get into the home entertainment divisions.

Nowadays, getting assigned to home entertainment is like being sent to the Eastern front. Better to work in theatrical distribution, international, or maybe studio facilities. Recently, I spoke with an executive from one of the big studios who, while discussing the challenges of working in the film industry, noted there was one silver lining: "At least I don't work in home entertainment."

The studios' home-entertainment divisions typically oversee sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs as well … Read more

Time Warner's very public bashing of Netflix in recent weeks is a result of the media conglomerate's frustration over having to bid against the Web's top video-rental service for Warner Bros. content, says a Netflix executive.

If it weren't for Netflix bidding up the price, Time Warner, parent company of pay TV service HBO, would have an easier time acquiring Warner Bros. content after the licensing deal between the studio and HBO expires in 2014. That is what Ted Sarandos, Netflix's content-acquisition chief, said today at a conference in Miami, according to PaidContent. Presumably, this … Read more

After several blockbuster films have been leaked to the Web and generated lots of press for the movies, the public is increasingly suspicious about whether the studios are orchestrating the piracy.

The most recent example came Tuesday evening, when 36 minutes of the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," turned up on file-sharing services. Blogs and online forums overflowed with theories about who leaked the film. "It may be going a little bit too far to suggest that Warner Bros. leaked the film intentionally, but from a business perspective it … Read more

Amazon.com has gone Hollywood.

Debuting yesterday, the new Amazon Studios is looking to make commercial motion pictures based on scripts and movies submitted by budding screenwriters and filmmakers.

Anyone with dreams to make it big in the big-screen business is invited to submit a full-length movie or script. Through both monthly and annual awards starting in 2011, Amazon plans to offer cash to the best submissions and develop the top projects as commercial movies through Warner Bros. or another Hollywood studio.

Filmmakers can upload their movies at the Amazon Studios Web site. Movies must be full-length--at least 70 minutes--and … Read more

What would have happened had the studios held on to the Netflix stock they once owned?

The Wrap, a blog that covers Hollywood, reminded us in a story today that in the 1990s Warner Bros. was looking for leverage in negotiations with video rental chain Blockbuster. The studio took small ownership stakes in Netflix prior to the company's initial public offering in 2002.

The other major studios followed but all of them unloaded their shares a year after the IPO.

They weren't the only ones who were wrong about Netflix. Jim Cramer, the high-volume host of the cable … Read more

Would you pay up to $30 to watch a film before it comes out on DVD? Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Disney certainly hope so.

The studios are considering launching a new service that would enable people to watch the latest films from home through their set-top boxes, Bloomberg reported. The films would be available long before they make it to DVD, Blu-ray, or on demand, the news service said.

For now, details on how the studios plan to bring films to home customers are scant. According to Bloomberg, an unidentified Disney representative said the company plans to test it … Read more

A lawsuit filed in federal court last week alleges that a group of well-known Web sites, including those owned by Disney, Warner Bros. Records, and Demand Media, broke the law by secretly tracking the Web movements of their users, including children.

Attorneys representing a group of minors and their parents filed the suit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, records show. The suit alleges that Clearspring Technologies, a software company that creates widgets and also offers a way to serve ads via widgets, is at the center of the wrongdoing.

Web site operators … Read more

Warner Bros. has expanded its DVD2Blu program, a service that offers customers the opportunity to send in a DVD copy of a movie and receive back from the studio a Blu-ray version.

Citing Blu-ray's success, Warner Bros. said consumers can now choose from 90 of the company's "most popular titles to upgrade." The available movies include several well-known titles like "The Aviator," "A Christmas Story," and "Get Smart."

Although I haven't tested it out, the process of using DVD2Blu seems painless. Customers can go to the site and select … Read more