P2P-Zone  

Go Back   P2P-Zone > Peer to Peer
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Peer to Peer The 3rd millenium technology!

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 18-03-20, 06:29 AM   #1
JackSpratts
 
JackSpratts's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,013
Default Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - March 21st, ’20

Since 2002































March 21st, 2020




Box Office: Moviegoing Plummets Worldwide, U.S. Movie Theaters Begin Closing
Pamela McClintock

Cinemas are entirely or partially dark in nearly 50 foreign markets as the U.S. begins following suit, including in New York City and Los Angeles.

Disney and Pixar's Onward provided a sobering case study over the weekend of the dramatic slowdown in moviegoing across the world, as more cinemas shuttered across various international markets amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In North America, the family animated film fell 73 percent to an estimated $10.5 million, the biggest second-weekend decline in Pixar's storied history (The Good Dinosaur fell 59 percent in its second weekend in 2015). Internationally, Onward's second-weekend gross from 47 markets was $6.8 million, a 76 percent dip. Through Sunday, Onward has earned $60.3 million domestically and $41.4 million overseas since its release.

Overall weekend revenue in North America hit at least a 20-year low ($55.3 million), according to Comscore. Similar stats for the international box office weren't immediately available, as in an unprecedented turn of events, more than 55 of the world's 75 or so moviegoing markets are being impacted by the virus.

As of early Sunday, all cinemas were closed in 32 international markets, including China, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands and Ireland. There were partial closures in another 15 markets, including the U.K., according to one international executive. Another dozen or so, including in the U.S., have reduced seating capacity in furtherance of "social distancing" and trying to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Hollywood studio distribution executives say the situation is changing by the hour everywhere, and that they expect widespread closures in other territories in the coming days — including in the U.S., which has more than 5,400 indoor movie theaters across the nation. Insiders at the National Association of Theatre Owners tell The Hollywood Reporter that theaters will abide by any orders from local and state authorities.

On Sunday night, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered all movie theaters, nightclubs, small theater houses and concert venues in the city to close starting Tuesday, an unprecedented move for one of the nation's biggest bustling cities. Not longer after, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a similar mandate.

The order for closure in the country's two biggest moviegoing markets came a day after cinemas in the U.S. began shutting down as local authorities in two Pennsylvania and New Jersey counties ordered that movie theaters go dark temporarily, including the AMC Garden State 16 in Paramus, New Jersey, one of the country's top-grossing theaters. (Paramus is a suburb of New York City.)

By Sunday afternoon, studio and exhibition sources said they expect widespread shutdowns in the coming days as more and more states and counties issue similar decrees. Later in the afternoon in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker banned all gatherings above 25 people across the state. In Quebec, places of public gathering such as bars and movie theaters were ordered to be closed.

Also on Sunday, new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all in-person events involving 50 people or more be called off for the next eight weeks. Representatives for major chains AMC, Cinemark and Regal did not immediately respond for comment on how these new guidelines might be implemented.

Many consumers are already opting to stay away from movie theaters, says Paul Dergarabedian of Comscore.

"As expected this weekend was a tough one as many industries faced challenges and movie theaters, while appropriately reducing capacity, of course saw the overall weekend box office fall to some of the lowest levels in years," he said.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...ndemic-1284760





With Movie Theaters Shuttered, Comcast’s NBCUniversal is Releasing Movies Direct to Streaming
Gary Thompson,

As COVID-19 takes its toll on the movie theater business, content providers are taking advantage of their streaming pipelines. Comcast’s NBCUniversal said Monday that Universal Pictures will “make its movies available in the home on the same day as their global theatrical releases.”

The very idea of a “global theatrical release” has been compromised by the global pandemic. In the United States, national chains Regal and AMC have shut down, following the lead of cinemas in other major markets, like China.

In light of the theater shutdown, NBCUniversal said some of its first-run movies would be “made available on-demand at the same time they hit those theaters that remain open during the coronavirus pandemic.”

Beginning withTrolls World Tour, April 10, it will make movies slated for theatrical release available for on-demand rental. The company said that movies that are currently in theatrical release will be available on demand “as early as Friday March 20.” That would include Universal’s The Hunt, The Invisible Man, and Emma.

Comcast’s Peacock streaming service is due to launch widely next month. In the meantime, “movies will be made available on a wide variety of on-demand services for a 48-hour rental period at a suggested retail price of $19.99 in the U.S. and the price equivalent in international markets,” the company said. The announcement was made by NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell.

In a statement, the studio said “given the rapidly evolving and unprecedented changes to consumers’ daily lives during this difficult time, the company felt that now was the right time to provide this option in the home. NBCUniversal will continue to evaluate the environment as conditions evolve and will determine the best distribution strategy in each market when the current unique situation changes.”

On Sunday, a day before the NBCUniversal announcement, Disney+ made that studio’s Frozen II available for streaming three months ahead of its scheduled streaming start date.

It remains to be seen if major distributors will follow NBCUniversal’s lead, allowing new movies to stream on the day of their scheduled theatrical release. Most have dealt with the crisis by pulling their major titles from theaters and postponing their release.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the National Association of Theatre Owners said it did not expect many movies to open exclusively on streaming platforms or arrive there early, while movie theaters are shut down.

“While one or two releases may forgo theatrical release, it is our understanding from discussions with distributors that the vast majority of deferred releases will be rescheduled for theatrical release as life returns to normal."

At this point, the group’s statement said, “the majority of movie theaters have now closed.”
https://www.inquirer.com/health/coro...-20200317.html





Coronavirus Impact: Netflix Shuts Down Film, TV Work in U.S. and Canada as Production Nears Standstill
Lesley Goldberg

The fate of scripted television production is very much in flux as the world grapples with the coronavirus. As of late Thursday evening, NBCUniversal has either suspended production or accelerated the season wrap schedules on 35 shows (scripted, unscripted and syndicated) as a precaution. CBS meanwhile, is taking a similar strategy and has done the same with a fair amount of its series. Other networks and studios are taking things on a case-by-case scenario. While every network, streamer and studio scrambled to make decisions about staffers working from home and what to do with series production, everyone had one thing in common: a sense of uncertainty given the unprecedented nature of the global pandemic.

By mid-Friday, Netflix had shut down all scripted TV and film physical production and prep for two weeks in the U.S. and Canada to comply with government restrictions in the regions. Disney TV Studios had shut down 16 pilots. Apple, meanwhile, has suspended all active filming on projects from outside studios. That includes previously announced The Morning Show and Foundation, as well as See, Lisey's Story, Servant and For All Mankind. Warner Bros. Television Group followed suit and issued the strongest statement to date about a studio's response to TV production amid the coronavirus pandemic: "With the rapidly changing events related to COVID-19, and out of an abundance of caution, Warner Bros. Television Group is halting production on some of our 70+ series and pilots currently filming or about to begin. The health and safety of our employees, casts and crews remains our top priority. During this time, we will continue to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control as well as local officials and public health professionals in each city where our productions are based."

Among the programs that are being shut down are Warners' The Bachelorette, Young Sheldon, Supergirl, Batwoman, Claws, All Rise, Lucifer, Queen Sugar and THR hears Pennyworth and The Flight Attendant; at Netflix, this includes hit Stranger Things and Grace and Frankie. Still, given the rapidly changing landscape as the world grapples with how to handle the evolving situation, it's fair to expect TV production will come to a standstill. WBTV pilots impacted include The CW's Kung Fu, Fox's The Cleaning Lady, Pivoting and untitled Goonies re-enactment, which will all push production until a date to be determined. The CW's The Lost Boys update is currently in production and is scheduled to wrap next week. The CW's Superman & Lois, which was picked up straight to series, will not shoot now as planned but instead push closer to a more traditional show start date in June or July, pending the state of the world. The same is true for Fox's Call Me Kat. Additionally, the final season of The CW's Supernatural has also suspended production.

FX Productions are also hitting pause as Snowfall and new series Y: The Last Man have both been postponed by two weeks, while Atlanta production is on hold and Fargo has been postponed.

WarnerMedia — which includes HBO, streamer HBO Max, TBS and TNT — also said the company would suspend production on series as needed. Righteous Gemstones, which recently began production on season two, is among the shows being impacted. Euphoria season two was also slated to begin production and will also be pushed. “In response to the global emergency related to COVID-19, we are working closely with our creative teams to assess the status of each of our series in accordance with the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as local health and government officials. We will suspend production on some of our series currently filming and will delay those scheduled to start imminently. The health and safety of our employees, casts and crews is our number one priority,” the company said in a statement late Friday afternoon.

As for AMC and its in-house produced originals, Fear the Walking Dead is in production as of Friday and has a previously scheduled hiatus set for next week. Production will be delayed an additional three weeks from there, meaning the spinoff won't resume until at least mid-April. Flagship The Walking Dead is in preproduction for season 11 and new series Kevin Can F*** Himself is in preproduction for season one. Production on both shows will be delayed by three to four weeks. Writers room and preproduction activities will continue on with staff working remotely. All other writers room activities will be done remotely for the next three to four weeks.

On Thursday, Apple's The Morning Show halted production on season two for a two-week hiatus as a precaution. Production on Apple's Ireland-shot drama Foundation has also been temporarily suspended. Meanwhile, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that CBS' Big Bang Theory prequel Young Sheldon, fellow Chuck Lorre comedy Mom and the network's legal drama All Rise — all produced by Warner Bros. TV — have each canceled wrap parties that were set for next week. That news comes a day after The CW's Riverdale shut down after a team member on the WBTV drama's Vancouver set came in contact with a person who tested positive for the virus.

ABC's Grey's Anatomy shut down production early Thursday evening and postponed the remainder of work on season 16, effective immediately. Production on the Shondaland medical drama will be shut down for at least two weeks as a precaution. It's unclear if the production delay will affect on-air episodes. Showrunner Krista Vernoff and exec producers Debbie Allen and James Williams made the announcement in a memo to the show's cast and crew. (Read their note, below.) Production just wrapped on episode 21 of the show's 25-episode season. Netflix's Grace and Frankie has also suspended filming on its final season "to ensure the safety of our cast and crew," producer Skydance said in a statement. (Skydance is the same studio behind the also suspended Foundation.)

CBS, Paramount TV Studios and Showtime — members of the ViacomCBS fold — said in a statement Thursday night that they have postponed production on some pilots and current shows. While they declined to list specific shows, sources tell THR that the three series in CBS' NCIS franchise, each of which has a few episodes left to film, will pause. The comedy The Neighborhood has one episode remaining and will film without a live audience, sources say. CBS All Access' The Good Fight has also been shut down for the time being. Drama pilots that haven't yet started filming are also being put on hold. A specific number of the conglomerate's affected programming was not immediately available.

Late Friday morning, Disney Television Studios — which comprises ABC Studios and 20th Century Fox TV, among others — postponed production on National Geographic scripted anthology Genius: Aretha, and postponed pilot production for at least three weeks on the following: Adopted, The Big Leap, The Big Sky, The Brides, Harlem's Kitchen, Home Economics, Kids Matter Now, My Village, Ordinary Joe, Prospect, Rebel, Thirtysomething(else), the untitled Kapnek/Holland, Valley Trash, Work Wife and Wreckage. (Click here to see filming locations for each.)

For NBCUniversal, the 35 tally includes scripted series, unscripted and syndicated daytime talk shows. Sources say shows from Universal Television, Universal Content Productions, Universal Television Alternative Studios and First Run Syndication productions are either pausing production for two weeks as a precautionary measure or expediting production in a bid to quickly wrap up production on a specific season. Sources say unscripted series World of Dance, for example, was set to wrap Saturday with production moved up to Friday in a bid to release cast and crew as early as possible. NBCU will, like others, monitor the global pandemic and make further decisions when necessary as everyone across the world puts the health of their colleagues front and center. Like ViacomCBS, NBCU declined to provide specific titles that are being impacted given the volume of those impacted. Sources say NBC's untitled mayoral comedy starring Ted Danson and from exec producer Tina Fey is among the programs that have suspended production.

What remains unclear is if cast and crew members will continue to be paid as the number of programs hitting pause continues to grow.

Other TV studios, sources say, are in the midst of discussions about whether or not to suspend productions and those decisions are likely to be made on a case-by-case basis. It's worth noting that, given the time of year, many broadcast shows are either at or near the end of their seasons and at work on finales. Some series, like ABC's Modern Family and Black-ish, have already wrapped for the season.

Meanwhile, TV writers rooms are discussing ways in which they can break stories and work remotely. CBS' MacGyver, per sources, has already made the decision to work remotely. Other sources say Warner Bros. sent its writers rooms sign-ups for Zoom, a web-based video conferencing app. That is but one option that many rooms are mulling as they, too, look to limit social interaction. Warners, those sources say, is deferring to individual writers rooms to make decisions on if they want to allow their staffs to work remotely.

Multiple showrunners that The Hollywood Reporter spoke with — none of whom wanted to go on record, given the speed with which decisions are being made in the wake of the pandemic — say that remote rooms will pose a challenge for traditional comedies as well as dramas that are in the "blue sky" portion of breaking stories for new seasons. Still, other rooms are said to be staying open with some splitting in half in a bid to create additional social distancing. By late Thursday, sources say many writers rooms had shifted to working remotely.

Postproduction appears unaffected — at least for the time being. For now, directors and actors are continuing to fly to sets. Casting directors, already taxed with the heavy burden of finding actors for the nearly 60 pilots in the works at the broadcast networks, were, as of Wednesday, still seeing actors on tape and in person. At the same time, many network and studio meetings are no longer being done in person, and several talent agencies are already requiring their staffs to work remotely. May's upfront presentations to Madison Avenue ad buyers are also being scrapped in favor of video presentations.

Elsewhere, sources say some studio execs have handed down notes on scripts to avoid writing scenes that call for a large number of extras in a bid to mitigate the number of people coming to set or at one location. Other outlets, like Amazon and NBC's East Coast operations, are giving staffers the opportunity to work from home.

On the unscripted side, some global productions — including CBS' Survivor — have also halted production or been scrapped. Daytime talk shows, game shows and late-night shows have already made decisions to bypass live studio audiences (for the time being).

Further complicating matters is the possibility of a Writers Guild of America strike that could shut down all production should an agreement with the studios over streaming residuals (among other issues) not be resolved when the current deal expires May 1. That puts an added strain on decisions about whether or not production should be shut down now. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, a number of shows had been quietly stockpiling scripts at the studios' request.

THR will update this story as more information becomes available about how the coronavirus is impacting scripted series production. Here are the shows that have also been impacted:

• According to Disney, Empire, Pose, American Housewife, Big Shot, The Resident and Queen of the South have all been shut down. On Sunday, Disney also shut down Hulu's The Orville and ABC's Last Man Standing for three weeks.

• ABC's The Goldbergs and spinoff Schooled have suspended production before the completion of their season finales.

• Power spinoffs Power Book II: Ghost and Power Book III: Raising Kanan have shut down production in New York.

• American Idol is on a scheduled production hiatus; continuing to monitor the coronavirus to determine how it may impact production in April. Fellow unscripted series The Masked Singer, which airs on Fox, has already completed production on its season.

• America's Got Talent is wrapping early on Season 15 Audition Rounds and will then go on scheduled hiatus.

• Disney+ shows including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision and Loki have halted production.

• CBS All Access has delayed the launch of its new daily animated variety series Tooning Out the News, from exec producer Stephen Colbert. "CBS All Access is delaying the previously announced March 16th launch of its new daily animated variety news series, Tooning Out the News, and production of the series will be temporarily postponed out of an abundance of caution," the streamer said in a statement Friday. "The welfare of our teams is of utmost importance and we will continue to monitor the situation, informed by health experts and government officials."

• Production on Amazon's Carnival Row in Budapest has been shut down for the time being. Star Orlando Bloom announced the news in an Instagram video in which he noted he was returning to the U.S.

• Amazon's highly anticipated fantasy drama Wheel of Time has shut down production in the Czech Republic, which, effective March 16, is instituting a travel ban as a precautionary measure amid the coronavirus fears.

• The CW's Warner Bros. TV-produced DC Comics drama The Flash has also shut down production in Vancouver.

• The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and Late Night With Seth Meyers have shut down production. The earliest both NBC late-night shows could resume is March 30. CBS' The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has also postponed production on the three original episodes that were to air next week — without a live audience. That will lead into a previously scheduled hiatus. New episodes are currently slated to resume March 30.

• Syndicated daytime talk show The Wendy Williams Show has put production on hold indefinitely. The following memo was sent to staffers late Thursday afternoon: "The safety and well-being of our employees is our top priority. Considering the current escalation of the coronavirus, production will be put on hold, indefinitely. However, the office will remain open for you to pick up any materials or personal items. In place of live shows we will air repeats and we will continue to monitor the situation with the CDC and city officials to determine the best time to return and produce live shows again. Thank you for everything you do and please stay safe!"

• ABC's Grey's Anatomy has also been shut down for at least two weeks. "To Our Incredible Cast and Crew: Out of an abundance of caution, production is postponed on Grey’s Anatomy effective immediately. We are going home now for at least two weeks and waiting to see how the coronavirus situation evolves. This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of the whole cast and crew and the safety of our loved ones outside of work, and it was made in accordance with Mayor Garcetti’s suggestion that we not gather in groups of more than 50. Stay safe, stay healthy, stay hydrated, stay home as much as possible, and wash your hands frequently. Please take care of yourselves and each other. As updates come in, we will keep you informed. Thank you for all that you do! Krista, Debbie, & James"

• All three NCIS shows at CBS have also hit pause on production as scripted and unscripted programming across the ViacomCBS portfolio is examined. Some series that are close to wrapping production on the season will continue on in a bid to complete work and wrap as quickly as possible.

• ABC's late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live will shut down for the weeks of March 16 and March 23, and the network's daytime soap General Hospital is suspending production through April 10. For the latter, ABC doesn't anticipate any interruption in new episodes.

• HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher and Last Week Tonight will suspend production after their March 13 and March 15 episodes, respectively. Those episodes will tape without in-studio audiences.

• The Ellen DeGeneres Show has also suspended production until March 30.

• Comedy Central's late-night series The Daily Show and Lights Out With David Spade are suspending production for two weeks starting March 16.

• "Following the news that the CBS production offices and studios where Full Frontal with Samantha Bee tapes had been compromised, the show has gone on hiatus and will be dark the week of March 16," TBS said in a statement. "This move is being made out of an abundance of caution regarding the spread of the COVID-19 virus and production is monitoring the situation closely to determine how quickly and safely the show can return."

• The Late Late Show With James Corden will also suspend production for the time being.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...ncerns-1284398





Legendary Piracy App Popcorn Time Comes Back From the Dead During Coronavirus Pandemic

Popcorn Time, the 'Netflix for piracy,' has suddenly come back online while much of the world locks themselves in their homes.
Jason Koebler

Popcorn Time, the highly popular and extremely-easy-to-use "Netflix for piracy" service, came back Tuesday after a years-long hiatus. The move comes as people around the world are quarantined or being asked to stay in their homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

Popcorn Time allows people to stream movies using BitTorrent, without actually downloading the movies or worrying about finding a tracker to use. Essentially, it removes any torrenting learning curve, allowing people to (illegally) stream movies and television shows from an easy-to-use app.

Because it’s so simple to use, Popcorn Time became instantly popular upon its release in 2014 and was immediately targeted by the movie industry. The service was shut down multiple times by court order, police raids, and IP blocks all over the world between 2014 and now; the open source app was forked several times and has worked intermittently, but has been largely offline over the last few years.

Within the last couple days, a new version of Popcorn Time popped up on Popcorntime.app, version 4.0. The new app works just as well as earlier versions of the app, is free, and implores people to use virtual private networks to avoid having their use of the app detected by their internet service providers. The app has been released while many around the world are quarantined, and also comes at a time when piracy is becoming more popular, generally speaking. Other versions of Popcorn Time are also currently active, but the user interface of this one and its release appear to be closely affiliated with earlier Popcorn Time projects, based on domain redirects and urls.

Brand new movies and shows are currently available on the app, including Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Joker, Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as series like Westworld, Better Call Saul, Futurama, and hundreds more. We’ll see how long this version lasts, but for those who are willing to pirate movies, its release couldn’t have come at a better time.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8...virus-pandemic





‘Green Book,’ ‘Capernaum’ Among Popular Movies Expected To Kickstart Chinese Cinema Reopenings
Rebecca Davis and Patrick Frater

China’s main state-owned distributor plans to issue eleven films, from which cinemas will keep all income, in order to get the country’s exhibition sector back on its feet after long closures due to coronavirus, it has said.

China Film Group listed a first batch of five selected titles on Tuesday in a statement addressed to cinema operators and managers nation-wide.

They include one foreign film — Lebanese director Nadine Labaki’s 2018 Cannes Jury Prize-winner “Capernaum” — and four Chinese blockbusters: Peter Chan’s 2013 “American Dreams in China,” 2015’s “Wolf Totem,” directed by France’s Jean-Jacques Annaud, and two of the country’s highest grossing films of all time, the patriotic titles “Wolf Warrior 2” and sci-fi adventure “The Wandering Earth.”

These titles will be available to re-opened cinemas from Friday, March 20, Chinese ticketing platforms now show.

Variety viewed screenshots detailing the contents of hard drives shipped Thursday between China’s state-run distributors and cinemas that list a second batch of six films. They consist of three Chinese films and three Hollywood ones with Chinese investment from Alibaba Pictures.

The U.S. films are Oscar-winning “Green Book,” which grossed in $71 million in China, Amblin Partners’ Dennis Quaid-starring “A Dog’s Purpose” and its sequel, “A Dog’s Journey,” which earned $88.2 million and $29 million in the country, respectively.

The Chinese films are the hit youth melodrama “Better Days,” which grossed $218 million last fall, the 2015 comedy “Goodbye Mr. Loser,” which grossed more than $200 million, and Light Chaser Animation’s “White Snake,” one of the country’s more successful homegrown animations, which earned $64 million early last year.

The producers and distributors of all the selected Chinese titles have agreed to forgo their typical 43% cut of the box office and donate it entirely to the country’s struggling cinemas. (Hollywood films typically imported on revenue sharing terms normally earn 25% of gross revenue.)

“These films will be distributed in a charity model,” China Film Group said in its Tuesday statement about the first batch, with cinemas taking 100% of the profits.

“We recommend that cinemas consider doing charitable, free screenings or low-cost screenings to benefit viewers” and get people back in the door, CFG said, before taking pains to emphasize that re-opened cinemas must stick to strict disinfection and hygiene procedures to keep the virus at bay.

“Our film was selected by the government to be re-released to support the theater chains which have been financially devastated by the epidemic,” a spokesman for Road Pictures, distributor of “Capernaum” told Variety. “Theaters will retain 100% of the revenue from these re-releases.”

The tear-jerking tale about the travails of a street-hardened Lebanese boy became a breakout hit when it reached Chinese cinemas last April, earning $54.3 million.

With the Chinese public still uncertain about whether and when to venture back into crowded places such as cinemas, none of the Chinese-made tentpole movies which had their planned Chinese New Year releases are yet willing to commit to a post-virus release date.

Re-releasing well-loved older titles, however, minimizes financial risk and, benefiting from name recognition, does not require audiences to experiment with untried content.

Other waves of films will be announced later. One exhibition sector employee told Variety that Japanese animation films may make future lists.

Classic and older titles have found surprising box office success in the Middle Kingdom, where many were never accorded a theatrical release when they first came out. Recently, these have included Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away,” which grossed $69 million last summer, 18 years after its first release, as well as two 1998 pictures: Giuseppe Tornatore’s “The Legend of 1900,” which made $20.5 million in November, and Oscar-winner “Life is Beautiful,” which earned $8.24 million in just 22 days in January before coronavirus shut the cinemas down.

On Thursday, Warner Bros. announced that a 3D, 4K restoration of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” will soon hit China in wide release. The title earned $8 million in the country when it was first released in 2002 — a time when China had a fraction of its current number of screens — but the franchise has an enthusiastic fanbase in the country. It is listed on ticketing apps as debuting April 30, just in time for the busy May 1 Labor Day holiday.

The topic of what exactly will hit Chinese cinemas and when appears to be slightly sensitive to Chinese authorities at the moment, with even highly cautious state-run outlets deleting certain information that might have ultimately been deemed premature.

One film bureau insider set one of his widely shared commentaries on Weibo to private, explaining: “[Officials] say that the epidemic isn’t over yet. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, it’s not time yet to speak out at such a grand scale.”

Nevertheless, some information about what else may be in store for the world’s second-largest film market has been gaining traction online.

A bundle of other Hollywood films that have already Chinese passed censorship and been approved for screening are likely to be re-scheduled, many of which were pulled from their February debuts as cinemas shuttered. These include “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Dolittle,” “1917,” “Marriage Story,” “Little Women,” “Bad Boys for Life” and “Ford V. Ferrari.”

It has yet to be officially confirmed, but Disney’s “Call of the Wild” and Oscar-winning “Jojo Rabbit” — which saw its originally scheduled February China release cancelled due to the coronavirus — may receive a limited release on April 4 from China’s National Arthouse Alliance of Cinemas, social media reports said Thursday.

An online news outlet affiliated with the state-run Chengdu Daily has said that streaming giant iQIYI has provided some cinemas with two films on hard drives: its first original animated title “Spycies,” with a decryption key that expires May 10, and shark survival horror film “Uncaged: 47 Meters Down,” whose key expires April 9. Cinemas currently attempting to slowly re-open in Xinjiang have already programmed “Spycies” as one of their few available titles.

Last Friday, the government-run film website 1905 Film put out an article on its official site that said China Film was preparing a screening series called “Unforgettable Memories: Screenings of Chinese and Foreign Classic Films,” indicating that classics would also be among the first titles to hit newly re-opened theaters.

It noted that “a large number of classic movies were inputted as having received approval codes in the national movie ticketing information management system,” which allows cinemas to schedule them in their systems for pre-sales. Among them were Chinese titles from the late 1980s such as “The Price of Frenzy” and “The Night Robbery.” The article was quickly deleted that same day — a frequent occurrence on China’s highly censored Internet for information that might be deemed sensitive or not yet suitable for release to the public.
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/c...ng-1203538776/





Exclusive: YouTube to Reduce Streaming Quality in Europe Due to Coronavirus
Foo Yun Chee

Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube said on Friday it will reduce its streaming quality in the European Union to avoid straining the internet as thousands of Europeans, constrained by the coronavirus outbreak, switch to teleworking and watch videos at home.

YouTube is the second company after Netflix (NFLX.O) to act after EU industry chief Thierry Breton urged streaming platforms to cut the quality of their videos to prevent internet gridlock. Videos account for a substantial part of internet traffic data.

The move came after Breton spoke to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. It said so far it had only seen a few usage peaks but decided to act to minimise stress on the system.

“We are making a commitment to temporarily switch all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default,” the company said in a statement.

Standard definition videos are not as detailed or as sharp as high definition videos.

Europe’s telecoms providers, from Vodafone (VOD.L) to Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), have reported a spike in data traffic in recent days, forcing Breton to issue his pre-emptive call before the internet breaks down.

Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN2170OP





Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Plus Degrading Video Quality to Ease European Bandwidth Strain Amid Coronavirus Emergency
Todd Spangler

Amazon and Apple are the latest companies to throttle back streaming-video bit rates in Europe, joining an effort to reduce congestion on the region’s internet networks that have become stressed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week, Netflix and YouTube said they were putting measures in place to lower bandwidth usage of their services across the continent. That came at the request of European Union officials concerned about networks getting swamped as millions of people are staying at home amid the virus crisis.

An Amazon rep confirmed to Variety that Prime Video has started to cut streaming quality for members in the U.K. and Europe but said the company was unable to share technical details.

“We support the need for careful management of telecom services to ensure they can handle the increased internet demand with so many people now at home full-time due to COVID-19,” the Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “Prime Video is working with local authorities and internet service providers where needed to help mitigate any network congestion, including in Europe where we’ve already begun the effort to reduce streaming bit rates while maintaining a quality streaming experience for our customers.”

For now, Amazon is not reducing Prime Video streaming bit rates in the U.S. or other areas outside of Europe and the U.K. but the company continues to monitor the issue worldwide.

Apple, meanwhile, is clamping down on video bit rates in Europe for Apple TV Plus, delivering streams at lower resolutions that “appear heavily compressed with visibly blocky artifacts,” according to a report from tech website 9to5Mac.

YouTube is switching default video playback in European countries to standard-definition quality (ordinarily the bit rate is automatically adjusted). Users have the option to select HD quality manually, a YouTube rep confirmed.

Netflix has not spelled out technical details of its bandwidth-reduction plan for Europe but estimated it can achieve a 25% reduction in usage by cutting video bit rates. It’s not clear if customers using Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV Plus users will have the option to override the video-delivery limits each of the providers is implementing.
https://variety.com/2020/digital/new...us-1203541271/





Charter Engineer Quits Over “Reckless” Rules Against Work-From-Home

Charter workers apparently face choice in pandemic: work in the office or resign.
Jon Brodkin

A Charter Communications engineer called the company's rules against working from home during the coronavirus pandemic "pointlessly reckless" and "socially irresponsible" before subsequently resigning instead of continuing to work in the office, according to a TechCrunch article published yesterday.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge last week told employees in a memo to keep coming to the office even if their jobs can be performed from home, because people "are more effective from the office." Employees should only stay home if they "are sick, or caring for someone who is sick," Rutledge wrote.

Nick Wheeler, a video operations engineer for Charter in Denver, sent an email expressing his displeasure with the policy to a senior vice president and "hundreds of engineers on Friday," TechCrunch wrote. The email said:

“I do not understand why we are still coming into the office as the COVID-19 pandemic surges around us. The CDC guidelines are clear. The CDPHE [Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment] guidelines are clear. The WHO guidelines are clear. The science of social distancing is real. We have the complete ability to do our jobs entirely from home. Coming into the office now is pointlessly reckless. It's also socially irresponsible. Charter, like the rest of us, should do what is necessary to help reduce the spread of coronavirus. Social distancing has a real slowing effect on the virus—that means lives can be saved.

A hazard condition isn't acceptable for the infrastructure beyond the short-term. Why is it acceptable for our health?”

The CDC's advice to businesses stresses that sick people should not come to the office but also urges businesses to "Ensure that you have the information technology and infrastructure needed to support multiple employees who may be able to work from home."
Resignation accepted

Within hours of sending the email, Wheeler was out of a job. The TechCrunch article explained:

“Just a few minutes after Wheeler sent the email, he was summoned to a vice president's office to a conference call with human resources. In a call with TechCrunch, Wheeler said his email was described as "irresponsible" and "inciting fear." He said it was hard to understand why Charter had not implemented a work-from-home policy after the coronavirus outbreak was upgraded to a pandemic.

Wheeler said he was given an ultimatum. Either he could work from the office or take sick leave. Staff are not allowed to work from home, he was told. Wheeler offered his resignation, but was sent home instead and asked to think about his decision until Monday.

Later in the day, he received a call from work. Charter accepted his resignation, effective immediately.”

Charter explains policy

Internet providers are in a tricky situation. Broadband is crucial to people's daily lives and their ability to work, even though it's not regulated like a utility. Maintaining home- and mobile-Internet connectivity is even more important than usual because of the pandemic, and that means sending technicians to customer homes and going into the field to fix broken equipment or wires.

But back-office functions can be performed remotely at many companies, and Wheeler argued that Charter is no exception. Despite that, Charter argued that even employees whose jobs can be done remotely should still come to the office.

Rutledge's memo to employees was posted on the company website Saturday. Rutledge wrote:

“Across 41 states, we have 95,000 employees, of which there are more than 80,000 frontline employees including maintenance and construction technicians, customer service specialists, sales and retention professionals, supply chain, employees in network construction, operations, monitoring and field dispatch facilities with their associated support functions across Spectrum Residential, Business, Enterprise, Reach and Networks. You provide and service important broadband connectivity, video, telephone, mobile services, local news and advertising for our customers, and those jobs cannot be performed effectively from home.”

What about those other 15,000 employees? Those people are based "primarily in Denver, St. Louis, Charlotte, and Stamford, [and] are here to support the front-line [workers]," Rutledge explained. The CEO then acknowledged that some of these employees could do their jobs from home but aren't being allowed to. "While some back office and management functions can be performed remotely, they are more effective from the office," Rutledge wrote.

Rutledge said that Charter's policy could change, but he didn't say when. "You may have heard that some companies are instituting broad remote working policies for some of their employees," Rutledge wrote in the memo. "While we are preparing for that possibility by geography, Charter is not doing the same today. We provide critical communications services and we believe our approach to supporting front-line employees is the right way for us to operate at this time to continue to deliver those important services to our customers."

"Based on facts and circumstances we will modify our approach as needed as we navigate COVID-19's development," he also wrote.

By contrast, AT&T told its staff that "Employees who are in jobs that can be done from home should do so until further notice." Comcast is testing a work-from-home system with some workers but still tells most employees to come to the office or retail stores where they work, unless they are sick.

Update at 5:32pm ET: When contacted by Ars, Charter declined comment on Wheeler but offered the following statement: "As one of FEMA's Community Lifeline sectors, our services are essential. We are working around the clock to deliver uninterrupted Internet, phone, and TV news services to our 29 million customers including critical institutions like hospitals, first responders, and government facilities. During this time, continuing to maintain our operations, while applying the latest CDC guidelines, ensures we provide these vital communications, which help flatten the curve and protect the country. We are reviewing our business and employee continuity plans daily, and will adjust accordingly."

Wheeler not alone in objections

Wheeler apparently was not the only Charter employee to disagree with the ISP's policy.

"Over 80 percent of Charter employees in and around the Denver area can work from home," one person who claimed to be a Charter employee wrote on Reddit. But "Charter DOES NOT believe in work[ing] from home" and "as usual is being foolish and opening themselves up for huge legal troubles from the state, the federal government, and of course any employees that were/are affected," the person wrote.

That Reddit thread also included the text of an employee email allegedly sent internally to Rutledge and executive VP of network operations Scott Weber.

"I am writing this mail under utter displeasure in the way Charter is treating its employees," the email said. "As you are aware of the spread of coronavirus outbreak here in the United States, Charter is putting us the employees under harm and risk. There are close to 50 confirmed cases here in Colorado and this morning we were told by our leadership at Network Operations that there is no work from home policy and anyone who takes sick leave must produce a doctor's note or else be fired." (Colorado's coronavirus cases rose to 160 by Monday.)

"If any of us gets exposed to this at work we will hold you personally accountable," the email also said. "The work we do can be done remotely without any obstacles. We do on-call and work through the nights from home all the time. I do not see a reason why we cannot work remotely during these difficult times."

Wheeler concerned about ex-colleagues

Update 4:23pm ET: Wheeler spoke to Ars by phone after this article was published, saying he's heard from at least 80 Charter employees who thanked him for sending the email.

"I obviously hit a nerve," he said. Wheeler said he's not planning to try to get his job back, as "I feel like I've thoroughly burned that bridge." But he is concerned about his former co-workers. "My immediate concern is is that my former colleagues can work from home. I want the pressure to be on Charter to change their policy for everybody who can work from home," he said.

Wheeler sent the email after numerous discussions with co-workers who were also concerned about working in the office during a pandemic, he said. Wheeler said his job and many others in Charter's Colorado offices can be done entirely from home. "All of the systems we work on live in other data centers that are not even in our building," and employee laptops have VPN capability, he said. Charter employees already do a lot of work at home during maintenance windows and heavy snowstorms, he noted.

Wheeler said he didn't expect sending the email to lead to his newfound unemployment and that his abrupt dismissal was especially perplexing because Charter managers initially urged him to reconsider his resignation. "I was called into a meeting, following sending the email, and in the heat of that moment, I offered to resign out of protest of the options that I was given," he said. Wheeler said Charter managers told him it wasn't necessary for him to resign but that "If you still want to do that on Monday, then we'll accept your resignation."

"That was all turned around an hour and a half later, and they accepted a resignation that I'm not sure was necessarily on the table anymore," Wheeler said.

"I was prepared for the consequences of sending that email, but I really didn't think it would come down to that," Wheeler also said. "It's a silly thing to get rid of somebody over at this stage in the game."

We also learned from a source at Charter that one team of workers within the company's customer operations division was given permission to work at home late yesterday. But as far as we know, the rest of the company's workers still face the rules outlined in Rutledge's post.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ring-pandemic/





Charter Grudgingly Lets up to 40% of Call-Center Employees Work from Home

Charter to consider employee health and job performance in work-at-home decisions.
Jon Brodkin

Charter has partially backed away from its strict rules against working from home during the coronavirus pandemic and will let up to 40 percent of call-center employees do remote work.

Charter Executive VP Cliff Hagan sent a memo to employees today, explaining that employees will have to meet certain conditions before being allowed to work at home:

A balance of "In Center" and "Remote Work" will be maintained. We'll begin offering remote work opportunities to those who are at higher-risk from a health standpoint, and then open the option to additional employees who are tenured, taking into account performance, the home infrastructure to support remote work, and agreement to the terms and conditions of a remote work assignment. During this time, we anticipate up to 40 percent of call center employees could be working remotely. These actions will further our ability to create greater physical separation and reduce the overall on-site staffing levels in our call centers.

The memo was shared with Ars by Charter employees. A Charter spokesperson told Ars that the memo was sent "to our Customer Operations organization, which includes our customer service call centers and related activity, but not the whole company." The Charter spokesperson did not tell us how many call-center workers it has or how many non-call-center workers will be allowed to work remotely.

As the memo makes clear, Charter doesn't trust all of its employees to get their jobs done remotely. Although Charter will prioritize employees with health problems, the cable company will also evaluate employee performance before giving healthy workers the green light to do their jobs at home.
Call center is “breeding ground for germs”

As we reported in previous articles, Charter has resisted requests to let employees work at home during the pandemic even as Comcast has been shifting thousands of call-center employees to remote work. Charter CEO Tom Rutledge told employees in a memo last week to keep coming to the office even if their jobs can be performed from home, because people "are more effective from the office." Charter has 95,000 employees and is the second-biggest cable company and Internet provider in the US.

One Charter engineer resigned rather than be forced to keep working in the office, saying that his job can be performed just as easily at home. We talked to several other Charter employees who complained that they should be able to work at home instead of in call centers; one employee described a call center as "an absolute nightmare breeding ground for germs."

Media attention and pressure from employees seems to have caused Charter executives to rethink their position. The memo today explained:

In response to the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in, for the next few weeks and maybe months, we will be enabling Remote Work options for a portion of our front-line agents. This is being done to allow for greater social distancing in our centers. We are taking these steps to further ensure the safety of our employees while balancing Charter's commitment to keeping our customers connected.

The memo said the process will take multiple weeks. "We are working through the details of the deployment over the next several days with the first wave of remote workers planned for next week and continuing until we have the desired number," the memo said, adding that "additional details will follow."

While at least 60 percent of call-center workers will have to remain in the office, thinning out the numbers will let employees work in less-cramped quarters. Charter employees who talked to Ars described working in rooms with hundreds of people. Some Charter employees have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, and at least three Charter facilities have already undergone "a deep cleaning and disinfection" after employees reported having symptoms. Those facilities are in Charlotte, North Carolina; Austin, Texas; and Greenwood Village, Colorado.

One Charter call-center employee in the Orlando, Florida, area does not agree with Charter's decision to determine each employee's work-from-home status based partly on their performance.

"If I am one of the 40 percent chosen because of my scores I will decline on the grounds that I am not going to put one of the other 60 percent at risk for illness and death just because I happen to be good at my job," the employee told us.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ork-from-home/





Yes, Global Spotify Chart Streams are Down this Week. No, that Doesn’t Mean Coronavirus is Hurting the Record Industry.
Tim Ingham

Yesterday, MBW ran the data on Spotify’s Global Top 200 chart – in addition to industry-wide US streaming numbers – to show how last week was, by and large, a positive one for the music business, even amid the beginnings of Coronavirus-related lockdown worldwide.

At first glance, there appears to be less good news for record labels in Spotify’s chart week (to end of today, March 19). But there’s also very good reason for those same labels not to be too concerned about it (which we’ll come back to).

MBW now has data for the first six days of the current chart week (to end of Wednesday, March 18) from Spotify’s global Top 200.

Cumulative global streams of Spotify’s 200 chart in this time, according to our calculations, stood at 1.56bn.

That’s an average of 259m streams per day, which allows us to confidently forecast a full-week tally (from Friday, March 13 to end of Thursday, March 19) of 1.81bn.

If a seven-day tally in this ballpark comes to pass – and all indications suggest it should – it will represent a week-on-week fall of 11.4% globally for Spotify’s cumulative Top 200 chart streams.

Obviously, in a world where many people are self-isolating and/or ‘social distancing’, this trend flies in the face of the idea that music streaming might see a Coronavirus ‘lockdown bump’ from consumers spending more time at home.

Looking specifically at Italy sheds more light on this topic, as noted in this (rather doom-laden) piece by Quartz.

Below, you can see the week-by-week Spotify Top 200 chart streams in Italy, including an MBW forecast of where those streams will get to in this chart week (to end of this evening).

We’re predicting a 13.1% decline in Spotify Top 200 streams in Italy for this week vs. last week; in turn, last week’s total was down 9.3% on the prior seven days.

Worth remembering: Italy’s prime minister announced a national quarantine on March 9, midway through the penultimate chart week in our chart.

The above graph, at first glance, makes for unhappy reading for the record business, then.

It suggests that hopes of a Coronavirus streaming ‘lockdown bump’ were unfounded – while also hinting that a populous staying at home, rather than commuting / at the gym / in the car etc. is actually predisposed to streaming less, rather than more, music.

Drawing such over-simplified conclusions, however, would be misleading.

These week-on-week percentage falls in Italy, it should be remembered, are relatively tiny in global terms; the difference between Italy’s cumulative Spotify Top 200 plays last week versus our projection for this week is 14 million plays.

Much more importantly, there are some huge caveats to remember here – not least the general sleepiness of the global blockbuster release schedule in music right now.

On a global basis, the chart week a fortnight ago (starting Friday, March 6) saw the release of precisely one truly blockbuster streaming album: Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake, which landed at No.1 on the Rolling Stone chart in the US with over 350m weekly streams in the market.

As a result, Lil Uzi Vert scored four new entries in the Top 20 of Spotify’s global chart on release day: Pop (No.19), Silly Watch (No.15), Lo Mein (No.11) and Baby Pluto (No.6, see below).

Yet, other than tracks from Eternal Atake, new entries on Spotify’s worldwide Top 200 on Friday, March 6 were minimal; the highest was at No.38: Demi Lovato’s I Love Me.

In the current chart week (starting March 13), things are even quieter. The biggest new release is (slightly confusingly) another Lil Uzi Vert record, the mixtape Lil Uzi Vert vs The World 2.

On its release day (Friday, March 13), Lil Uzi Vert vs The World 2. scored just one entry in the Top 20 of Spotify’s global Top 200 – Myron, at No.14 (see below).

Highlighting the lack of record industry activity right now, Myron was also the highest new entry on the Spotify global chart from any artist that day.

Indeed, Spotify’s daily chart had just four new entries in its entire global Top 50 last Friday… all of which were from Lil Uzi Vert vs The World 2.

Tomorrow (Friday, March 20) will be a very different story, when the Weeknd’s After Hours – the Canadian megastar’s first album since the huge streaming hit Starboy in November 2016 – is released.

Spotify’s chart database doesn’t go back as far as Starboy’s release date, but let’s just remind ourselves what SPOT’s global Top 200 chart looks like when a truly blockbuster album is made available.

Here’s how the Top 15 of the Spotify global Top 200 chart was transformed on September 6, 2019, when Post Malone – The Weeknd’s fellow Republic-signed superstar – released his latest album, Hollywood’s Bleeding.

Expect The Weeknd to dominate similarly, and those global Spotify Top 200 weekly streams to shoot up once again.

(While we’re in ‘everything’s still great, honestly’ mode, Italy’s Spotify chart on the last industry release day, March 13, saw one – one! – new entry in its entire Top 50, Trip by Nicola Siciliano feat. Nayt, at No.44. So the fact Spotify chart plays in the market are suffering this week may have less to do with Coronavirus and more to do with the fact that… erm, hardly any new music is charting.)

Another very important point here: Spotify’s Top 200 chart is an indicator of just that – the 200 biggest songs on the platform at any given time.

What it doesn’t show is how all of the other 50 million-plus tracks on Spotify, where the bulk of the platform’s streaming activity actually takes place, are performing.

A quiet blockbuster release week like the one we’re seeing right now can, therefore, have a major negative impact week-on-week on these rankings, which doesn’t apply across all activity on Spotify.

Some even suggest that the real Coronavirus ‘lockdown bump’ may be taking place across evergreen catalog songs (outside the Spotify Top 200) that bring comfort and familiarity to us during uncertain times.

Interesting, then, to see catalog tracks such as Perfect and Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran (No.162 and No.136 respectively) plus Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen (No.130) are all rising on Spotify’s global chart right now.

Plus, the record industry won’t be sweating any dip in Spotify streams from paying subscribers – labels and artists will still be paid a share of this ‘big pot’ of revenue based on their proportion of monthly paid-for streams.

All of that being true, the leading players in video media, rather than audio media, are enjoying much clearer signs of a Coronavirus ‘lockdown bump’ as you read this.

Earlier today (March 19), the European Union called on the likes of Netflix and YouTube to stop showing video in HD – because their services might literally break the internet breaking due to unprecedented usage.

Netflix’s stock price, at the time of writing, is up over 9% on the NASDAQ.
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.c...cord-industry/





Volunteers 3D-Print Unobtainable $11,000 Valve For $1 To Keep Covid-19 Patients Alive; Original Manufacturer Threatens To Sue
Glyn Moody

Techdirt has just written about the extraordinary legal action taken against a company producing Covid-19 tests. Sadly, it's not the only example of some individuals putting profits before people. Here's a story from Italy, which is currently seeing more new coronavirus cases and deaths than anywhere else in the world. Last Thursday, a hospital in Brescia, in the north of Italy, needed supplies of special valves in order to use breathing equipment to help keep Covid-19 patients alive in intensive care (original in Italian). The manufacturer was unable to provide them because of the demand for this particular valve. The Metro site explains what happened next:

With the help of the editor of a local newspaper Giornale di Brescia and tech expert Massimo Temporelli, doctors launched a search for a 3D printer -- a devise that produces three dimensional objects from computer designs.

Word soon reached Fracassi, a pharmaceutical company boss in possession of the coveted machine. He immediately brought his device to the hospital and, in just a few hours, redesigned and then produced the missing piece.


Actually, it wasn't quite as simple as that suggests. Business Insider Italia explains that even though the original manufacturer was unable to supply the part, it refused to share the relevant 3D file with Fracassi to help him print the valve. It even went so far as to threaten him for patent infringement if he tried to do so on his own. Since lives were at stake, he went ahead anyway, creating the 3D file from scratch. According to the Metro article, he produced an initial batch of ten, and then 100 more, all for free. Fracassi admits that his 3D-printed versions might not be very durable or re-usable. But when it's possible to make replacements so cheaply -- each 3D-printed part costs just one euro, or roughly a dollar -- that isn't a problem. At least it wouldn't be, except for that threat of legal action, which is also why Fracassi doesn't dare share his 3D file with other hospitals, despite their desperate need for these valves.

And if you're wondering why the original manufacturer would risk what is bound to be awful publicity for its actions, over something that only costs one euro to make, a detail in the Business Insider Italia article provides an explanation: the official list price for a single valve is 10,000 euros -- about $11,000. This is a perfect example of how granting an intellectual monopoly in the form of a patent allows almost arbitrarily high prices to be charged, and quite legally. That would be bad enough in any situation, but when lives are at stake, and Italian hospitals struggle to buy even basic equipment like face masks, demanding such a sum is even worse. And when a pandemic is raging out of control, for a company to threaten those selflessly trying to save lives in this way is completely beyond the pale.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...s-to-sue.shtml

















Until next week,

- js.



















Current Week In Review





Recent WiRs -

March 14th, March 7th, February 29th, February 22nd

Jack Spratts' Week In Review is published every Friday. Submit letters, articles, press releases, comments, questions etc. in plain text English to jackspratts (at) lycos (dot) com. Submission deadlines are Thursdays @ 1400 UTC. Please include contact info. The right to publish all remarks is reserved.


"The First Amendment rests on the assumption that the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public."
- Hugo Black
__________________
Thanks For Sharing
JackSpratts is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 24-03-20, 07:20 AM   #2
John_Asscroft
a kinder gentler SS
 
John_Asscroft's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: under your bed
Posts: 18
Default MONEY, Get Back

Im alright Jack, keep 6 feet away from my stack

Warm wishes to you.
John_Asscroft is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-03-20, 07:03 AM   #3
JackSpratts
 
JackSpratts's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: New England
Posts: 10,013
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by John_Asscroft View Post
Im alright Jack, keep 6 feet away from my stack

Warm wishes to you.
good to see you and thanks for the sentiment. i hate this new six feet thing tho. i like things close. i do 6', but i hate it. stay safe.

- js.
__________________
Thanks For Sharing
JackSpratts is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - July 16th, '11 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 0 13-07-11 06:43 AM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - July 9th, '11 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 0 06-07-11 05:36 AM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - January 30th, '10 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 0 27-01-10 07:49 AM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - January 16th, '10 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 0 13-01-10 09:02 AM
Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review - December 5th, '09 JackSpratts Peer to Peer 0 02-12-09 08:32 AM






All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:12 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
© www.p2p-zone.com - Napsterites - 2000 - 2024 (Contact grm1@iinet.net.au for all admin enquiries)