MPAA called to task at SXSW

Listen to this panel discussion at SXSW where a representative from the MPAA faced down an audience of geeks who called her to account for the MPAA's war on its customers and on technology.

It's typical that the MPAA only sends speakers to events where they're not likely to face an audience who knows how to call their flawed tactics on their talking-points, so this is a rare and delicious debate, in which the MPAA rep is utterly defeated.

Some metrics on the popularity of media players

"Podcasting is taking off and iPods are seemingly ubiquitous. Unique users of Apple's iTunes player should pass RealPlayer by mid-2006 with nearly 30 million users in the US alone. People are tuning in over twice as long with iTunes than with RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. As broadband penetration increases we are spending more time on our computers."

The thing I don't quite get though, isn't iTunes at its core just a XML wrapper for Quicktime? I mean, it's not a codec. So the rise of the popularity of iTunes as a media player, simply means the rise of Quicktime.

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

A girl signs up for a class. A couple hires an accountant. A group of co-workers decides to pool their money and buy a couple of lottery tickets. In the beginning, they're full of hope and optimism ... and then something turns. Stories of good ideas gone bad from NPR's 'This American Life' -

Click here to listen (Real Player Required)

Conservative Media, Liberal Nation

Eric Alterman, Professor of English, Brooklyn College, CUNY; and a Columnist for The Nation speaks about the uneasy relationship between the press and the left. The lecture took place at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

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Sundance Film Festival Puts More Content, Emphasis Online

For the first time at the festival more than half of the short films, known as "Shorts," will run online. In fact, about 50 of 73 are available for viewing. It's been rare for filmmakers to let the public view their original content on the Web.

Watch 50 exclusive selections from the collection of Short Films from the 2006 Sundance Film Festival in Flash 8 video

Excursions into the New Psychology of Entertainment

This presentation is an academic look at entertainment, by Dolf Zillman, professor and senior associate dean at the University of Alabama.

"Given that the Age of Entertainment is upon us, it is astounding how little attention contemporary scholars have given to understanding what it is that draws us to entertainments and what, in cognitive and emotional terms, we get out of succumbing to the lure of these entertainments."

Click here to watch (Real Player)