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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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| Updated September 25, 2006 DVD
NEWS DIGEST 1 -
Inside Man Universal Studios Home Video
As part of a 100-day, nationwide piracy crackdown that began in July, police and copyright officials have raided nearly 90,000 shops and street vendors selling pirated DVDs and ripoff software, closed down 3,014 shops and busted 9,500 vendors for selling fakes. Nearly all of Beijing’s best-known outlets for high-quality pirate DVDs have been closed or driven underground. Any stores still operating have only poor-quality merchandise or older products. The State Press & Publication Administration [SPPA], which monitors China’s antipiracy efforts, said 8.4 million illegal CDs and DVDs have been confiscated during the drive. SPPA is allowing vendors to hand in pirated copies as part of an amnesty, and the organization said more than 60% of shops nationwide have taken the offer.
About 20,000 pirated movies were seized from two retail units. The lab ran out of a third site a basement unit equipped with 142 data burners, stacked in towers and operating around the clock. "This is certainly the largest (lab) we have ever seen in Canada," said Jim Sweeney, an anti-piracy investigator with the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, a non-profit agency that assisted in the police-led investigation. In Canada alone, the motion picture industry lost $225 million US due to piracy last year, Sweeney said.
A DVD to help pupils pick the right subjects at school is to be sent out to local schools. The DVD, produced by an education support group, explains how 14 to 19-year-olds can draw up an Individual Learning Plan (ILP). The ILP gives students the chance to reflect on their own skills and choose the education that best suits their talents and ambitions. DVDs are to be distributed to 50 schools in local areas, for use in assemblies and with individual pupils.
In a seemingly never-ending parade of DVD releases, film noir classics (along with the not-so-classic) are flowing from movie studios' vaults. "The studios are putting them out and they're going to keep putting them out until there aren't any more," says Alain Silver, author of several film noir books. Recent
releases include Nicholas Ray's "On Dangerous Ground",
"Lady in the Lake" (a Philip Marlowe detective story),
"Border Incident," (about a corrupt rancher's exploitive
smuggling of Mexicans), "His Kind of Woman" (an especially
darkly lit Robert Mitchum movie) and "The Racket" (another
Mitchum film, this one about police corruption). Some classics are getting the special edition treatment. A recent two-disc version of "Double Indemnity," improved the picture quality of the film's first DVD edition. For many, a renaissance for film noir makes sense. Made during World War II and the Cold War, noir was a dark, paranoid, cynical creation evocative of a tense time -- not unlike today's world.
The founder of UK DVD Rental Guide said “Online DVD rental is slowly but surely making its mark on the entertainment industry and is a powerful rival for its traditional highstreet alternative. The phenomenon of online DVD rental may ultimately replace the traditional form of DVD rental” There are a number of reasons why DVD rental is attractive. • Cheaper. The prices for online rental are much cheaper than the highstreet alternative. • Convenient. No need to go out to the store. Just browse and select titles online from the comfort of your own home • No Due Dates. • No late return charges.
Research published by Screen Digest says that in the first quarter of 2006 approximately 54 million DVDs were given away free by newspapers and magazines in the UK, almost exactly the same number as retailers sold through traditional channels during the same period. This coincides with a marked decline in DVD sales, with average household purchases down from 12.5 DVDs in 2004 to 11.4 in 2005. In
recent years the practice of ‘cover-mounting’ free DVDs
has been adopted by the national press in an attempt to increase
circulation, generating a good deal of controversy in the video
industry. Between 2000 and 2005 the average UK consumer price of a DVD fell by almost 30%, suggesting that the video industry itself is partly responsible for devaluing DVDs in the eyes of the consumer. end
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