add my name to the list!
Film Actors Join the Fray Against ‘Screeners’ Ban (news.yahoo.com)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Several top actors and past Academy Award winners are joining the battle against a controversial ban on Oscar movie “screeners” by voicing their opposition in a newspaper advertisement, a film industry source said on Tuesday. …… The ad will ask the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents Hollywood’s major studios, to reverse their decision to issue screeners to Academy members who vote on the awards.
The ban on “screeners” — videotapes and DVDs of movies vying for awards — has raised a major outcry by filmmakers, directors and now actors who say it will limit the number of people who will see contending films and discriminate against smaller independent studios.
The MPAA instituted the ban out of concern the videos and DVDs will be illegally copied and sold on black markets or distributed for free over the Internet, which happened last year.
why i care: now i, obviously, have different reasons for opposing the screener ban than the “top actors and past academy award winners.” in addition to being a big-time supporter of independent film, i am also a big-time supporter of the black market here in asia. i rely on illegal copies of these screeners. they keep me sane. please jack valenti, don’t make me wait until next summer to see lost in translation! please! lift the ban! if you don’t do it for me, do it for the orange street oscars.
see also: What’s the big Oscar DVD ‘screener’ flap?
10.16.2003, 11:28 PM · Movies · Comments (1)
blame china: part 473
Commission: China’s manipulation of its currency hurting US economy (news.yahoo.com)
WASHINGTON (AFP) - An independent review panel has determined in a report sent to the US Congress Wednesday that China is manipulating its currency, to the great detriment of US industry.The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, after hearing the testimony last month of economists, academics business and labor leaders and lawmakers, determined that “China, in violation of both its (International Monetary Fund) and (World Trade Organization) obligations, is in fact manipulating its currency for trade advantage.
The panel recommended in its report to the US Congress that the Treasury Department “immediately enter into formal negotiations with the Chinese government” over its currency the yuan, which the commission estimates is undervalued by between 15 and 40 percent.
Meanwhile a US lawmaker introduced legislation Wednesday calling on the George W. Bush administration to repeal permanent normal trade relations with China, saying the policy is destroying US manufacturing and threatens to eliminate US service industry jobs as well.
the gut reaction from a close friend: “so it’s ALL china’s fault. can you imagine if suddenly things from china started to cost 15-40% more? or if we just stopped receiving their exports at a large scale? what happened to all the economists who would say that just revaluing the yuan isn’t likely to help america’s manufacturing sector, because there are other problems at the heart of the job losses? argh.”
10.16.2003, 11:02 PM · News · Comments (1)
