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Pirate Party Launches Commercial Darknet Today, the Swedish Pirate Party launched a new Internet service that lets anybody send and receive files and information over the Internet without fear of being monitored or logged. In technical terms, such a network is called a "darknet". The service allows people to use an untraceable address in the darknet, where they cannot be personally identified. "There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the Internet," says Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party. "If the government can check everything each citizen does, nobody can keep the government in check....

(AgapePress) - Barna Research in 2002 revealed that less than 10 percent of teens believe that there are such things as moral absolutes to guide their actions. These teens were initiated into this "value-free" environment by their parents -- adults who believed in moral absolutes made up only 22 percent of the research sample. So perhaps it is fitting that My Super Ex-Girlfriend and John Tucker Must Die were released as this summer's one-two PG-13 punch. If we are going to encourage a new generation of morally ambivalent teens, after all, we need to make sure they can attend...

It is no secret that most Americans believe Hollywood is out of touch with mainstream America. Some of the films they have produced over the years with their explicit lewd and violent scenes would make anyone's grandmother blush. Yet, for all the hype of these their prize films, box-office receipts have declined a consistent 7 percent over the last three years. Hollywood executives have seemed confounded to understand why Americans are no longer turning out for movies in the same force as they used to. Until last week, when Walt Disney Company's new president of production, Oren Aviv, announced, in...

Shawn Hogan is taking the download battle to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Wired says Hogan, CEO of Digital Point Solutions, is challenging a lawsuit filed by the MPAA. The suit says Hogan illegally downloaded the film "Meet the Fockers" through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer system. Hogan denies the claim and is vowing to take the case to court. So why is this a big deal? In most cases the downloading lawsuits filed by the MPAA and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) never reach the courtroom. According to Wired, many of these lawsuits go unchallenged because defendants...

HAS THE MPAA begun rating films based on religious content? It depends on who you believe. The one thing everybody agrees on is that Facing the Giants, a church-made film about a Christian football coach who conquers the "giants" of fear and failure, deserved its PG rating. But was it for the adult themes of infertility and depression, as the Motion Picture Association of America claims, or was it for its evangelical Christian content, as its producer, Provident Films, maintains? Provident spokesperson Kris Fuhr told Scripps Howard News Service that the MPAA used the word "proselytizing" in its explanation for...

WASHINGTON -- A Christian-themed movie about a football coach's faith in God is finding an audience in Congress -- not so much for its inspirational message, but for the PG rating it received. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and other lawmakers are demanding explanations after hearing complaints that the movie "Facing the Giants" was rated PG instead of G due to religious content. The Motion Picture Association of America claims the controversy arose from a miscommunication with the filmmakers. It says religion was not the reason for the rating. "This incident raises the disquieting possibility that the MPAA considers...

A low-budget, inspirational football movie made by Baptist pastors in Georgia has triggered a flood of attacks by Christian groups that accuse Hollywood's main trade association of penalizing the film by giving it a PG rating. In the last week alone, the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which oversees the rating board, has been swamped with more than 15,000 e-mails arguing that "Facing the Giants" deserves a more family-friendly G rating. The complaints — the number of which may be 10 times the previous record for reaction to a ratings decision — say the movie is being unfairly targeted for...

Why should parents be forewarned about a Christian film with no sex, violence or raw language? The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has placed a PG rating on forthcoming film because it has a Christian message. Randy Sharp, director of special projects at the American Family Association, said the rating that reviewers gave Facing the Giants was for "thematic elements." Not only was the rating unwarranted, Sharp said the reasoning behind the rating was just as offensive. "The MPAA gives a warning to parents about content that may be found offensive," Sharp told CitizenLink. "Usually, a PG rating would...

Narrow focus draws 'PG' rating for Baptist-backed film By TERRY MATTINGLY Scripps Howard News Service 07-JUN-06 The Motion Picture Association of America is crystal clear when it describes why its "PG" rating exists _ it's a warning flag. "The theme of a PG-rated film may itself call for parental guidance," states the online explanation of the rating system. "There may be some profanity in these films. There may be some violence or brief nudity. ... The PG rating, suggesting parental guidance, is thus an alert for examination of a film by parents before deciding on its viewing by their children....

Narrow focus draws 'PG' rating for Baptist-backed film The Motion Picture Association of America is crystal clear when it describes why its "PG" rating exists _ it's a warning flag. "The theme of a PG-rated film may itself call for parental guidance," states the online explanation of the rating system. "There may be some profanity in these films. There may be some violence or brief nudity. ... The PG rating, suggesting parental guidance, is thus an alert for examination of a film by parents before deciding on its viewing by their children. Obviously such a line is difficult to draw."...

The Motion Picture Association of America is crystal clear when it describes why its "PG" rating exists _ it's a warning flag. "The theme of a PG-rated film may itself call for parental guidance," states the online explanation of the rating system. "There may be some profanity in these films. There may be some violence or brief nudity. ... The PG rating, suggesting parental guidance, is thus an alert for examination of a film by parents before deciding on its viewing by their children. Obviously such a line is difficult to draw." Disagreements are a given. The Christian moviemakers behind...

This will be a busy week in the House -- Congress goes into summer recess Friday, but not before considering the Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA). Never heard of SIRA? That’s the way Big Copyright and their lackey’s want it, and it's bad news for you. Simply put, SIRA fundamentally redefines copyright and fair use in the digital world. It would require all incidental copies of music to be licensed separately from the originating copy. Even copies of songs that are cached in your computer's memory or buffered over a network would need yet another license. Once again,...

A flood of legislation released by the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act threatens to drown whole classes of consumer electronics In 1998, U.S. entertainment companies persuaded Congress to make dramatic changes in its copyright code by passing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The DMCA gave copyright holders new rights to control the way people use copyrighted material and new protection for technologies designed to restrict access or copying. The movie and record companies argued they needed these new restrictions to fight increased piracy threats in the digital era. In the eight years since the DMCA's passage, however, piracy...

MPAA Trains Dogs to Sniff Out Pirate DVDs Two black Labradors are being employed in the fight against piracy in the U.K. Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service Thursday, May 11, 2006 The Motion Picture Association of America is putting some bite behind its bark in its fight against illegally copied CDs and DVDs. The movie industry group has funded the eight-month training of two black Labradors, called Lucky and Flo, who can now sniff out optical discs at customs points and other locations. The MPAA worked with its U.K. counterpart, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). While dogs have long...

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - The U.S. House of Representatives has approved child-safety legislation that includes a provision bringing some legitimate film and TV productions under the same federal-reporting requirements as X-rated films. Under a provision inserted in the Children's Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act, the legislation would require "any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape or other matter" that contains a simulated sex scene to come under the same government-filing requirements that adult films have to meet. Currently, any filmed sexual activity requires an affidavit that lists the names and ages of the actors who engage in the act. The...

If you sell your iPod and don't remove your music first, you could find yourself with the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) breathing down your back. The organisation last week told sellers in the US that doing so is a clear violation of copyright law and warned them that it's sniffing out for infringers. Apple's rapid iPod refresh schedule, not to mention those of its competitors, have generated a tide of old music player offers in classified ads columns and on sites like eBay. Rather too many sellers are shipping their old machines with music libraries intact - some...

In "This Film Is Not Yet Rated," a documentary receiving its world premiere Wednesday at the Sundance Film Festival, Dick uses private investigators to unmask the identities of members of the Certification and Rating Administration, which the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA) operates with the National Association of Theater Owners. The film also presents side-by-side scene comparisons that Kirby contends show how the board's decisions favor studio releases over independent films while also revealing sexist and homophobic attitudes. The film includes interviews with several filmmakers who have gone through the appeals process to avoid an NC-17, a restrictive rating...

PARK CITY, Utah — The Motion Picture Assn. of America, the leader in the global fight against movie piracy, is being accused of unlawfully making a bootleg copy of a documentary that takes a critical look at the MPAA's film ratings system. The MPAA admitted Monday that it had duplicated "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" without the filmmaker's permission after director Kirby Dick submitted his movie in November for an MPAA rating. The Hollywood trade organization said that it did not break copyright law, insisting that the dispute is part of a Dick-orchestrated "publicity stunt" to boost the film's...

The EFF's Deeplinks section has a pretty alarming post about the RIAA and MPAA's attempts to freeze the progress of consumer electronics technology and then start turning back the clock on all of us. Fair use, meet your successor: "customary historic use." The post points to broadcast flag draft legislation sponsored by Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) that contains provisions which appear to limit digital broadcast media reception devices to "customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law and that prevents redistribution of copyrighted content over digital networks." In other words,...

Kirby Dick was steamed. Somebody would have to pay. It was sometime in 2004, and he had run out of patience. Too many independent filmmakers, people just like him, he said, were being made offers they couldn't refuse: cut cherished scenes from their movies or get smacked with an NC-17 and disappear into commercial oblivion. Director pals told him what he suspected already: the secretive, too-powerful Motion Picture Association of America was hammering independent filmmakers with tough ratings while letting the major studios off easy. You couldn't reason with the ratings board, the indies bleated; it wouldn't even let you...