michael favia

An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Brazil may be the country to watch if you're interested in much more consumer-friendly copyright laws (assuming US diplomatic pressure doesn't interfere). As that country goes through a copyright reform process, among the proposals is one that would create fines not just for infringing, but also for hindering fair use and the public domain. Also, there is a big push underway, with widespread support — even from some artists groups — to legalize file sharing in exchange for a small levy (~$1.74/month) on your broadband connection. Of course, one reason why Brazil may be doing it this way is because of the massive success the Brazilian musical genre technobrega has had by embracing file sharing as a way to promote new works, and making money (often lots of it) through other avenues, like live shows."

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An anonymous reader writes "TorrentFreak has shed some light on the dark practice of installing stealth-mode P2P clients during game downloads and using unsuspecting gamers' PCs as 'bandwidth slaves.' The clients operate in the background and largely go unnoticed until problems arise that are caused by overactive uploading/seeding. While the Akamai NetSession Interface and Pando Media Booster are specifically called out, there appear to be other offenders as indicated in the comments left by TorrentFreak readers. A publisher called Solid State Networks is putting out a call for an industry-wide 'best practices' effort to promote transparency, control and privacy on behalf of gamers who are otherwise being abused for their bandwidth without their consent."

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pickens writes "Erik Hayden writes in the Atlantic that children will see endearing portraits of Chewbacca rendered in the style of "Winnie-the-Pooh" in the book of drawings "Wookie the Chew," a tribute to the combined genius of George Lucas, A.A.Milne and E.H.Sheppard, by artist James Hance released on September 1st. Samples from the book are available at Hance's web site. Hance bases his right to parody Winnie-the-Pooh on Fair Use as parody under which certain uses of copyrighted works, which would otherwise be considered infringing, are permissible. Interestingly enough, the rights to the original Winnie-the-Pooh were the subject of an 18-year feud in which Walt Disney corporation fought off a challenge to its ownership of the rights ending in 2009 when a judge in Los Angeles struck out a claim against Disney lodged by the family of Stephen Slesinger, a comic book pioneer who bought the copyright to Pooh in 1930 from the bear's British creator, A.A. Milne. Stories of Pooh's adventures were originally created by Milne in the 1920s, based on a toy bear owned by the author's son, Christopher Robin."

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eldavojohn writes "Analysts are saying that this year will be the first year YouTube turns a profit. From the New York Times article: 'In the last year, the video site has become a significant contributor to the family business at a time when Google, which makes more than 90 percent of its revenue from text search ads, is seeking a second act. Though Google does not report YouTube's earnings, it has hinted that it is hovering near profitability. Analysts say YouTube will bring in around $450 million in revenue this year and earn a profit. Revenue at YouTube has more than doubled each year for the last three years, according to the company.' Of course a little over a year ago we were being told that YouTube was losing around $1.65 million each day. Regardless, when you pay $1.65 billion for a business, you probably don't expect it to take three to four years before you start making your money back."

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Focus Features

It's another fairly slow weekend for new releases in town. The most notable films of the week include The American, which opened on Wednesday, and the action packed Machete. Both of these titles are getting wide releases nationwide, but have plenty of independent spirit. As always, there are some very unique special events going on across town which are also detailed below.

The American (wide)
Famed music photographer & video director Anton Corbijn follows up his moody Ian Curtis biopic, Control, with a moody thriller starring George Clooney as an assassin who is out for one last job.

Machete (wide)
The roots for this one go back to Grindhouse, where it originally appeared as a fake trailer squeezed in between Planet Terror and Death Proof.. Robert Rodriguez shot this one around Austin last summer. Danny Trejo leads an eclectic cast that also include Robert DeNiro, Cheech Marin, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, and even Lindsay Lohan.

Mao's Last Dancer (Regal Arbor)
Directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy), this was the highest grossing Australian film of 2009. Based on the true story of Li Cunxin, a ballet dancer from China who performed for the Houston Ballet and was forced to defect to the United States after falling in love with a fellow dancer and getting married.

2nd Annual Big Lebowski Scavenger Hunt (Paramount Theatre)
We're pretty sure that the Paramount isn't hiding toes, bowling balls, or White Russians around town, but you can turn up at 2pm on Sunday afternoon to participate in a Scavenger Hunt prior to the 3pm screening. For the less adventurous, there is also a regular screening of the movie at 7pm.

Carl Gottlieb live with The Jerk & Caveman (Alamo Ritz)
Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb will guest along with a 7pm screening of Carl Reiner's 1979 classic The Jerk and also the 1981 comedy Caveman (starring Ringo Starr!) which he wrote and directed at 10pm.

Cinema East presents Trinidad
Local filmmakers PJ Raval & Jay Hodges created this fascinating documentary about a small town in Colorado that has become the "sex change capital of the world." This special screening happens at 8pm on Sunday night, as part of the Cinema East series which will be hosted by Rebecca Havemeyer and include a Q&A with the filmmakers.

Dogtooth (Alamo Ritz)
OK, we're cheating a little bit because you have to wait until this weekend is over for this critically acclaimed Greek film to play. It is being presented by SXSW for three screenings at the Alamo Ritz on Tuesday, Wednesday and next Sunday.

tsu doh nimh writes "Credit card giant VISA International has suspended its business with ePassporte, an Internet payment system widely used to pay adult Webmasters and a raft of other affiliate programs. A number of adult Webmaster forums are up in arms over the move because many of their funds are now stranded. Visa has been silent on the issue so far, but KrebsOnSecurity.com points to an e-mail from ePassporte founder Christopher Mallick saying the unexpected move by Visa wouldn't strand customers indefinitely. Mallick co-directed Middle Men, a Paramount film released in August that tells the story of his experience building one of the world's first porn site payment processing firms, as well as the Russian mobsters, porn stars and FBI agents he ran into along the way. Interestingly, the speculation so far is that Visa cut ties with ePassporte due to new anti-money laundering restrictions in the Credit Card Act of 2009, which affects prepaid cards and other payment card instruments that can be reloaded with funds at places other than financial institutions."

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Fun Fun Fun FestDeerhunter can’t seem to sit still. When their third album, Microcastle, was leaked onto the internet a few months before its physical release, the Atlanta, Georgia quintet merely recorded a fourth album to accompany number three. They’ve amassed four full-lengths plus two EPs in five years, and album number five, Halcyon Digest, is due on September 28. And the band’s two principals—Bradford Cox and Lockett Pundt—maintain productive solo careers as Atlas Sound and Lotus Plaza, respectively. With all of this material, it’s obvious the band revels in approaching their music from as many angles as possible.

This is apparent in their disparate influences, which range from punk rock and krautrock to shoegaze and girl-group pop and all points in between. Deerhunter can turn on a dime, with each of their albums acting as massive sonic journeys that are as challenging as they are rewarding. Halcyon Digest’s first single, “Revival,” is a stunning slice of ear-worm pop that bodes well for LP number five. It takes that Phil Spector-inspired sound that’s all the rage these days and turns it on its head, searing the edges with psychedelia and Deerhunter’s characteristically crowded production touches. For a band built on a myriad number of nuances and textures, the single has a decidedly widescreen effect.

Given its September release date, Halcyon Digest’s songs should be well-digested (no pun intended) by the time Deerhunter takes the Orange Stage at Fun Fun Fun Fest. They’re sure to not only please their rabid fans but also earn more than a few converts along the way. Be sure to witness one of the most inventive indie bands around at the peak of their powers.

Deerhunter: [Official] [Myspace]

Footage from seven ongoing NASA space missions provide hyper-realistic scenery for the 3-D animated film, while the voices of multiple Captain Kirks and Darth Vaders play the parts of space explorers.

When the super-Earth COROT-7b was discovered in 2009, it was heralded as the rockiest, most truly Earth-like exoplanet yet. But a new study suggests it's more like a comet.

jamie sends in a story about an unexpected finding by the Phoenix Mars Lander which has shed new light on experiments done by the Viking landers back in 1976. The Viking experiments found traces of chlorine compounds that were interpreted to be the result of contamination from cleaning fluids on Earth. In 2008, an experiment done by Phoenix found percholates in the soil, which came as a surprise to researchers. After doing tests on similar soil from Chile, a new study has found that those percholates, paired with organic molecules, could very well be the source of the chlorine compounds detected by Viking. While this is not direct evidence for life on Mars, the fact that complex organic compounds can apparently persist in the Martian soil gives researchers a new avenue to pursue while looking for that evidence.

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Out of Bounds Comedy Festival Kevin McDonald’s Hammy and the Kids
Sunday September 5
La Zona Rosa (612 W. 4th Street)
$25, 9:30 pm
[info] | [tickets]

Kevin McDonald headlines this year's Out of Bounds Comedy Festival with his one-man show, Hammy and The Kids. In the show, McDonald explores his relationship with his alcoholic father and with his influential sketch comedy comedy troupe/television show, The Kids in the Hall. After touring in 2000 and again in 2008, their new television show Death Comes to Town premiered earlier this year in Canada. Austinist caught up with McDonald to talk about his show, wherein he discusses the difficulties he faced with his father and with the Kids, especially during the process of making the troupe's feature film, Brain Candy. McDonald told Austinist about the origins of his show, checking out some music in Austin, and why he's funnier to rape than Bruce McCulloch.

How has the show changed over time?

I debuted the show in L.A. a few years ago, and at the time it was running over what most one-man shows run. For some reason, they're always an hour and fifteen, but mine was an hour forty-something at first. So, I said, "Well it just has to be that way. It's that long. That's the way it is." That's my Scott Thompson impression, by the way. That's not how Scott really talks, but that's how his soul talks. So I impersonate his soul. And then in Montreal, I was there for like 12 nights for "Just for Laughs" in the summer of 2007, and the first two shows, people were liking it, but they weren't laughing, they were crying.

Not the usual response to a comedy show.

The way I see it, it's a total comedy, but I do talk about my drunk dad. I see it as a total comedy, but because it was longer, I said, "Oh, they're taking it sadder than it really is." So that night, I woke up at three in the morning after the second show, thinking, "I want them to laugh, not cry." So at six in the morning I made cuts, and I got it down to the magic hour and fifteen. And then next night it was total laughs. It was like that way for the rest of the run. For the past three years it's been little changes, nips and tucks. Most of the changes were that night between 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning.

What made you decide to do a one man show about this?

Well, one night in 2006 -- I remember years -- Do you know Carl Arnheiter from UCB? He does this thing where he goes to different Upright Citizens Brigade theaters in New York and LA, and he interviews comedians like David Cross or Bob Odenkirk or Carrot Top. I'm making up Carrot Top. What he does is he brings you in front of a live audience, and he asks you questions for an hour. It's called The Inside Joke. Anyway, he got me there, and for an hour he asked me questions. He asked me a lot about my dad. He asked me a lot about Kids in the Hall, and for the whole hour I got a giant amount of laughs. And basically I was telling stories that I've been telling for 20 years. Then the next night, again, I think I woke up at three in the morning, though I probably woke up at eight in the morning, and I thought, "Wow, those stories always get laughs, and I'm tired of saying them. What if I did a one man show, organizing those stories together, getting sort of a story-behind-the-stories, and then I would never have to tell those stories again. My dad had just died, so I could tell them now. Thankfully, my dad had died. So I could tell those again. That day I started writing a one man show. It was sort of based on that Inside Joke interview I did with Carl.

Has writing and performing this particular show affected your processing or dealing with all that past history?

It's funny, because I had gone to a therapist before that, and you feel a little better. Then a few months later, you forget about it. Doing this all the time, it feels like I've totally dealt with it. I don't know if that's true, but it feels that way. I feel that he's laughing at it, and that we're both laughing at it. It feels like it doesn't matter anymore, and the pain can't affect me anymore, the pain of having an alcoholic dad. And I made a show out of it. I make a little tiny bit of money from it, more than I make a creative expression out of it. And I don't want it to affect me adversely anymore. I think the show has helped me get towards that path.

In 2008, the Kids in the Hall did a tour, and you guys opened that tour with a video sketch where the group is thinking of new ideas and they decide to rape you. Is that sketch related to your show?

[laughs] That's a good question. It actually isn't. It was just an idea that Bruce [McCulloch] had. He called me one day a couple years before that, and he told me about it. And I laughed my head off. That's when, for a couple of years, we were meeting every 4 or 5 months in Los Angeles to work on new material, because we wanted the tour to be new material. So he told me that and then for a while it looked like we weren't going to get together to do the tour. So he formed his own troupe, a Bruce McCulloch troupe. He had so many sketches he wanted to get out of his system. So he did a thing but he made it rape Bruce because it was him and 4 or 5 other people. And it was kind of funny, but I always thought in the back of my mind, Bruce isn't that funny to rape. I'm funny to rape. And then we did get back together to work on the tour. We would write new stuff Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and perform Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Then at the end of two or three years we'd pick the best stuff. One particular week we were a little light on sketches. So I said to Bruce, "Remember that rape Bruce thing? Why don't we do that?" I didn't say rape Kevin. I didn't want to be an ego maniac. "Rape me, I'm the star!" So we start rehearsing it and then, during rehearsal, Dave [Foley], not even knowing the history the sketch, says, "You know what? it gets funnier if we rape Kevin." I'm just a funny guy to rape, I guess. So Bruce says, "Oh, that's funny, it was originally rape Kevin." And Dave says, "Oh yeah, Kevin's the guy we have to rape." I don't want to use that word so much.

Fair enough. What are some of the differences between when you guys are writing the original series and writing for that tour and Death Comes To Town?

I was going to say the writing process has evolved over the years, but it hasn't really evolved. It's just changed due to different circumstances. For example, in the mid 80's, when we were just a stage troupe, what we would do is come to the theater on rehearsal days. Each of us would have an idea, we'd tell the idea and if people didn't hate it, we'd rehearse it over and over until it was written. We never wrote anything down, we just basically wrote it through improv. And then when we got the TV show we couldn't do that. We had to have scripts and props and wardrobe, hair and make-up, and know what to do. So they introduced us to this new thing called computers and we had to actually write down the scripts. And then we started writing in groups of one or two or three. Dave and I wrote together a lot. Bruce would write with Mark [McKinney] sometimes, Scott wrote by himself. And then we started hiring more friends to write with us. I would write with Norm Hiscock. Sometimes Norm, Dave and I would write. Brian Hartt would write with Bruce, but very rarely was it more than three people. Then when we did Brain Candy, we were, all five of us, plus Norm Hishcock, in the same room. It was horrible. We could hardly turn the page unless we all agreed on the previous page, and we never ever, ever, agreed on the previous page. As I say in my one man show... So it took forever. It took fifteen months, and when we started filming, we still didn't have the last act, which was really hard and slow.

But now, Bruce has experience. He had an ABC show that he created, Carpoolers, a few years ago. He's been in charge of TV shows, so Bruce was in charge of Death Comes to Town, and basically he and I, between the charts, sort of wrote it. Scott was in there for a little bit, Dave and Mark were busy, but at the end, they put their two cents in. But basically Bruce and I -- with Bruce still being in charge -- sort of wrote it with every one's input, and that was the easiest and the quickest way to write it. I think it's really good, and I know in my heart of hearts, the best way to get Kids in the Hall stuff is to get all five of us together in units to groups. We're old men now, and we're still trying to figure out the correct process to write movies and sketches. We've got sketches down. We know how to do that. But the story process -- I think it's some meeting in different groups of two and three.

Is there anything in particular you're looking to do while you're in Austin this time around?

Uh, what's the famous street where all the cops are?

Sixth Street.

I'm bringing my girlfriend and my guitars. We're gonna go up and down Sixth Street and listen to some bands. I know what happens I'm in the back. I'm enjoying a Tex-Mex band, I go, "This is really good." Then some person from Austin recognizes me and says, "Oh man, this isn't a really good Tex-Mex band, they were good twenty years ago when they weren't trying to be a Tex-Mex band." And I say, "Well, basically I'm from Toronto. It's Tex-Mex to me."

MojoKid writes "NVIDIA has announced an entire line-up of Fermi-based GeForce GT and GTX 400M mobile GPUs, seven in total, and revealed a number of notebook design wins from major OEMs. Like their desktop-targeted counterparts, the mobile GeForce GT and GTX 400M series GPUs make use of technology from NVIDIA's desktop architecture, which debuted in the GF100 GPU at the heart of the company's flagship GeForce GTX 480. GeForce GT and GTX 400M series GPUs are DirectX 11 compatible and support all of NVIDIA's 'Graphics Plus' features, including PhysX, 3D Vision, CUDA, Verde drivers, 3DTV Play and Optimus dynamic switching technology. The GeForce GTX 470M and GTX 460M are the most powerful of the group and target enthusiasts and gamers, while the GeForce GT 445M, GT 435M, GT 425M, GT 420M and GT 415M target performance-conscious, but more mainstream consumers."

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The presumed-dead videogame makes a splash appearance at Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle.

www.austinfilmfestival.com Austin Film Festival
Oct. 21-28
Various Venues (Austin)
Passes Start at $42, Badges Start at $95
[info] | [tickets]The Austin Film Festival is now less than two months away, and the information about who will be doing what where has been steadily trickling in. Several details have yet to be revealed, but we like what we see so far.

The Awards. Each year this screenwriting-focused festival hands out awards to three impressive artists in the field. Previous honorees have included Ron Howard, Mitchell Hurwitz, Lawrence Kasdan and Mike Judge; this year David Simon (The Wire, Treme) and David Peoples (Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys) will be recognized as Outstanding Television Writer and Distinguished Screenwriter, respectively.

The Lineup. Only ten films have officially been announced, but they look enticing, indeed. Fair Game stars Naomi Watts and tells the story of screwed-over CIA agent Valerie Plame. I Didn’t Come Here to Die illustrates that volunteer work can be a dangerous business. Make Believe, coming from the creators of The King of Kong, follows the lives of six young magicians trying to make it big, and The Space Between explores the unusual partnership that arises between a child and a flight attendant in the days following 9/11. See descriptions of all ten films here.

The Panelists. As usual, an impressive group of screenwriters and movie industry experts is slated to attend the conference portion of the festival. To name just a few, artists looking to break into the biz will have the chance to interact with people like Michael Arndt (writer for Toy Story 3), Alvaro Rodriguez (writer for Machete), Alison Macor (author of Chainsaws, Slackers and Spy Kids) and Graham Reynolds (composer of A Scanner Darkly and beloved Austinite).

The Parties. Tickets are on sale now for The 8th annual Food and Film Festival, a famously indulgent affair that will feature cuisine from Austin’s finest restaurants, silent and live auctions, music and an open bar. Held at the Driskill Hotel, this will be the best place to catch sight of John Lee Hancock (writer/director of The Blind Side) and any film celebrities who feel like stopping by. This event will be held Oct. 20th and tickets are $70 for AFF members, $80 for non-members.

We’ll keep you updated as more information is released. And one last thing: You have until Sept. 30 to buy your discounted badges, so get on it, film fans!

crimeandpunishment writes "It was the big deal Dell wanted in a big way. But now that it has lost out to Hewlett-Packard in the bidding war it started for 3Par, where does Dell go in its effort to diversify its business and move into the higher-profit area of selling technology to other companies? The company faces significant challenges, largely due to its lower-end focus, and because many of its competitors beat Dell into branching out. One analyst says, 'People see [Dell] as box-pushers'."

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A first look at iOS 4.1 Gold Master, the latest release of Apple's mobile operating system due out next week. A developer sent me a copy and I have it installed on my iPhone 4. Major new features are the HDR photo mode and Game Center.

Just say "no" to be being an iClone. Get a device with an open OS, lightning-fast data connectivity and a network that won't drop calls every five minutes.

Don't hit the books without getting the right gear. We've got all the kit you need from taking scrupulous notes, to working off campus, to being the most popular kid in your dorm.

If you're even thinking of working off-campus without taking this Wi-Fi-spewing wonder card, you'll need to be fitted for a straight jacket.

The sparkle of starlight off water could be the clincher for finding oceans on extrasolar planets. And it could be observable with the tech that will be deployed in the next generation of space telescopes.