Posted By: Brian Hendrickson


In 2005, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in regard to the plague of pirated movies which was occurring through the so-called "analog hole." (For non-engineers, the "analog hole" is the movie industry's term for any content-playing device connected to a TV through the red, blue and green multi-use port on the back of millions of TV sets.) The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), argued that consumers would export movies through the analog output, stealing content and sending it out over the Internet.

Committee leaders didn't seem convinced that the analog connections on TV's were leading to piracy.

MPAA is now back before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - pleading for permission to disable lawfully purchased HDTV-capable TVs. Using an obscure procedural mechanism, MPAA is asking the FCC for authority to use "selectable output control" (SOC) to shut off TVs that don't use the preferred digital connections. (Again for the non-engineers, SOC allows content providers to shut off the video stream to any TV that is receiving content over a non-favored connection, such as analog.)

Some movie studio officials have agreed publicly that the biggest source of piracy comes from video cameras in the actual theater, operated by a movie patron while hidden under a coat.

The reason is not as much about movie piracy, but rather the control of your HDTV. By turning off an individual TV at will, the studios gain power over a viewer's TV experience. If successful, viewers will only be able to watch movies when, where and how Hollywood dictates.

"We will soon learn whether the "new FCC" is a reality. We hope they understand that to take away the consumer's ability to shift lawfully acquired content based on the speculation and whims of the MPAA is bad policy. That is why every major consumer group is on record opposing it. That is why we oppose it." (Gary Shapiro. Nov 12, 2009. Dear FCC, Please don't let Hollywood break my TV)

Posted by: Rustin Harris

Thanks to Stephen Schleicher over at Major Spoilers 

Interviews with Star Wars man himself George Lucas and others have given us a glimpse of what to expect for the upcoming live action T.V. show.
Lucas will write and produce the first season, and then "hand it off from there", while remaining executive producer and general overseer throughout the rest of the series. The style of the series will be similar to Lucas' Young Indiana Jones TV series.
The series is set between the founding of the Empire to the events of A New Hope, referred to as "the dark times" by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the latter film. It is during this period that the last of the Jedi will be hunted down, the newly-formed Galactic Empire will rise to power throughout the galaxy, and the first Death Star will be constructed.
Nevertheless, most of the stories will be told from the perspective of minor characters from the Star Wars galaxy. Lucas has described it as "one show that will split into four shows, focusing on different characters." Boba Fett may play a significant supporting role in the series, with Daniel Logan reprising his role from Episode II: Attack of the Clones. According to Lucas, several of the major characters from the films may have small appearances as well.

During the events of the series, the Rebel Alliance will gradually form into a full resistance against the Empire. The Alliance will ultimately win its first major battle against the Empire, referenced in the opening crawl in A New Hope.
Recent Star Wars productions have revealed all that is known at this point about the period the series will take place in:

• The Evasive Action: Prey webstrips reveal that an unknown number of Jedi escape Order 66 and are hunted for a time by Darth Vader. At some point, Palpatine orders Vader to focus on helping build the Empire, and leave the remaining Jedi to others.
• Yoda is in self-imposed exile on Dagobah, while Obi-Wan becomes a hermit on Tatooine after taking baby Luke Skywalker to live with Owen and Beru Lars. The Last of the Jedi: The Desperate Mission reveals that Obi-Wan resides there until contacted about Anakin's one time rival, Ferus Olin. He then goes on one final adventure off-planet before returning to Tatooine. He may have some further planetbound adventures, but otherwise mostly watches over Luke, from a distance.
• A.C. Crispin has stated that she proposed a book series dealing with Princess Leia Organa between Episode III and IV, but that "Lucasfilm didn't approve the idea of a Leia backstory because they want to keep that era of the SW continuity untouched for the television series they're considering."

On the style of the series, McCallum has stated "It is going to be much darker, much grittier, and it's much more character based."Lucas has described the series as "bare-bones" and "action-heavy",and has stated that it will be for more mature audiences like TV shows Battlestar Galactica and Firefly.
Lucas stated at Celebration III that cameos by main characters are not totally out of the question. A teaser image shown at Toy Fair 2007 features a close-up of Boba Fett's helmet.
Frank Oz (Yoda), Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine), Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa), Wayne Pygram (Grand Moff Tarkin), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Temuera Morrison (Clone Troopers/Imperial Stormtroopers) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) have expressed their interest in occasional appearances.
Lucas himself instructed the writers of the Star Wars: Republic comic book series not to kill off the Quinlan Vos character. Lucas had originally written a scene for Revenge of the Sith involving Vos, but ultimately, he only got a mention in the film.