EU Politician Says ACTA Is Dead
Alexander Alvaro, a member of the European Parliament, has issued a statement to Billboard stating that he expects the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement will be rejected by the European Parliament.
The agreement is currently be reviewed by the Committee on International Trade. Additional information can be found here.
Bill C-11 Update
Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, will be up for its third reading vote by June 18th in the House Of Commons.
The Avengers & Hunger Games – Pre-order ?
 
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It appears that Hollywood is no longer waiting for films to leave the theaters before issuing release dates for DVDs and Blu-rays.
A few days back I had discovered that Men In Black III was available for pre-order from amazon.com Spring blockbusters have usually been slated for release during the Christmas season. But it appears they will be released in late summer/early fall. I guess the earlier release dates can be attributed to the digital film conversion in theaters. It’s much easier to produce blu-rays and DVDs from films that are already in a digital format. The previous 35 mm motion pictures required extensive conversion before they could be made available for distribution on blu-ray and DVD. Perhaps digital films will be made available for rental or purchase online within weeks of their theatrical release in the near future. Some independent films were already made available during their theatrical run, some on the very day they were released in theaters. |
are available for pre-order as well.Cisco Predicts Online Video Explosion
Cisco has released their Visual Networking Index Mobile Forecast for 2011-2016 and it predicts that mobile data traffic will explode because of online video.
The report predicts that in Canada “mobile data traffic will reach 219,897 Terabytes (0.22 Exabytes) per month in 2016” because more Canadians are using their mobile devices to watch movies, television programs, music videos and other content from sites like Youtube.
In 2011, Canada’s mobile data traffic was clocked by Cisco at 10,773 Terabytes (11 Petabytes) per month, “the equivalent of 3 million DVDs each month or 30 million text messages each second.” And their 2016 prediction would equal “55 million DVDs each month or 606 million text messages each second”.
Cisco reported that in 2011 only 57% of that year’s mobile data traffic was video. But predicts that 75% of this traffic will be video by 2016, at 162,179 Terabytes per month.
No New Postal Import Duty Allowance ?
The duty free allowances for cross-border shoppers will rise on June 1st, 2012. But the duty and tax exemptions for postal importations remain intact.
The 24 hour duty allowance will rise from $50 to $200 whilst the 48 hour duty allowance will rise from $400 to $800.
On postal importations, the duty and tax exemptions remain at $20, $60 on gifts.
Men In Black III Pre-Order ?!
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Men In Black III was just released in theaters and it is already available to pre-order from amazon.com.
Also included with the pre-order is an offer for a free movie ticket to see it in theaters. I took advantage of an offer I had previously mentioned on this blog. |