![\"Copyright\"](\"http:\/\/www.digital-digest.com\/blog\/DVDGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/copyright.gif\" "\\"Copyright\\"")
<\/p>\nI’ve been catching up on my list of “to watch” movies, both on Blu-ray, and on my Netflix “My List”. I really wish there was a separate genre for disturbing or depressing films, instead of lumping them all together in the drama genre.\u00a0It doesn’t feel right that movies as different as\u00a0‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and ‘Enough Said’ both belong to the drama genre (at least according to the IMDb), or that a film as disturbing as ‘Blue Jasmine’ would also belong to the comedy genre. I watched ‘Blue Jasmine’ after back-to-back sessions of ‘City of God’ and ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, and if I hadn’t watched ‘The Muppets’ in between, it would have seriously disturbed my mood (and even so …). Be very careful when\u00a0choosing to watch a drama, that’s my tip for the week.<\/p>\n
(‘Enough Said’ was pretty sweet though, so it was a real mood redeemer thanks to great performances by the late and great\u00a0James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfus)<\/p>\n
And yes, I did have time to do (some) work in between epic movie sessions.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Quantity over quality, may be the strategy behind some rightsholders choosing to use Google’s DMCA process over more effective systems<\/p><\/div>\n
This week\u00a0TorrentFreak investigates<\/a> why rightsholders are choosing to use ineffective Google DMCA take-downs as opposed to more efficient take-down tools, specifically the British based BPI. On one hand, rightsholders are submitting millions of take-down requests for URLs that are almost\u00a0instantly recreated, but are refusing to work with tools that not only take down actual content\/files, not links, but also keep them down.<\/p>\n One of the targeted file hosts, 4shared, is using a tool that is now owned by Spotify, that allows rightsholders to request any specific piece of\u00a0content to be taken down – the tool will then automatically remove all related links to this piece of content, and even prevent future links from being created on 4shared. So it’s curious as to why the BPI and other rightsholders aren’t using this tool. 4shared thinks that the decision comes down to a\u00a0public relations one. Millions of take-downs make better headlines than say working with a file host that you’ve been publicly admonishing, using\u00a0a tool that makes piracy take-downs seem almost trivial. Piracy is supposed to be this billion dollar a year headache that cannot be solved without basically giving rightsholders total control over everything, so there is\u00a0a need\u00a0to\u00a0be able to show how big the problem really is, and millions of taken down links will do that.\u00a0The fact that these take downs are part of an\u00a0endless game of copyright whack-a-mole, doesn’t really matter, neither is the fact that this does nothing to win the war on piracy.<\/p>\n It’s hard to win when you actually don’t want to win.<\/p>\n My recent Netflix binge has made me pine for a private viewing mode on Netflix, hoping that the\u00a0eclectic collection of films I watch won’t end up confusing the Netflix recommendation system. My wish may come true soon, as it appears Netflix is testing a private watching mode<\/a>. The current\u00a0workaround is to have a\u00a0dedicated profile that you create and delete all the time, which also helps to ensure all the softcore porn you’ve been watching on Netflix doesn’t end up on your My List.<\/p>\n PS4 and Xbox One both getting Blu-ray 3D playback in the next few weeks<\/p><\/div>\n Meanwhile, Netflix this week announced that they’ve broken through the 50 million users barrier<\/a>, with nearly\u00a014 million outside of the US. Revenue was up 25% as well, compared to last year, as the company focuses less on securing expensive\u00a0licensing rights to films and TV shows, and more on original content.<\/p>\n Back to physical media,\u00a0Microsoft this week announced that Blu-ray 3D support will finally be added to the Xbox One console, and a couple of days later, Sony followed with a similar announcement for the PS4. The PS4’s Blu-ray 3D support will arrive\u00a0a little earlier than the Xbox One’s – next week versus some time in August<\/a>. The one-upmanship continues for these two console heavyweights, which I guess is a good thing for the consumer.<\/p>\n Thus far, the lack of Blu-ray 3D support has been a bit more embarrassing for Sony than for Microsoft, considering Sony’s close links to the Blu-ray format (ie. it’s their format). So the update, coming via firmware version 1.75 next week, is most welcomed.<\/p>\n And if Sony can bring back DLNA support to the PS4, then I can finally start thinking about upgrading\u00a0my PS3.<\/p>\n It’s that time of the month again, and the NPD report for June shows a marked improvement for the Xbox One<\/a>, thanks to the Kinect-removing inspired price drop, while the PS4 was still the best selling console for the month (that’s 6 months in a row).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n