Media

Since the state broadcaster was shut down last week and its 2,600 employees fired, there has been an outpouring of solidarity, despite its long history of mismanagement and patronage.

The Emmy Award-winning actor who shot to fame on the HBO drama “The Sopranos” as a hard-living crime crime boss.

In the final of five Mr. Magazine™ Minutes mini-series with top magazine media executives, chairman and CEO of Active Interest Media Skip Zimbalist tells Samir “Mr. Magazine™” Husni why he is bullish about the future and power of print magazines and magazine media. On Friday, watch for the release of Mr. Magazine™ Presents: Bullish on the Printed Magazines, a mini-documentary featuring all five interviews in the mini-series The Power and Future of the Printed Magazines. Join Mary Berner, David Carey, Steve Lacy, Bob Sauerberg, and Skip Zimbalist and yours truly in the first ever Mr. Magazine™ mini-documentary. Stay tuned!

George Zimmer, the founder of Men’s Wearhouse and a frequent presence in its commercials, was fired by the company’s board on the day of its shareholders’ meeting.

The Oklahoma City Thunder's Kendrick Perkins isn't going to stoop to eBay. He's not going on Craigslist. No, he simply offers his pooch to his tweeps. Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Sam Taylor-Johnson will direct the film adaptation of the best-selling erotic novel “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

CANNES – Michael Kassan, CEO of the LA/NY-based  MediaLink, a highly influential media and technology consulting firm,  has emerged as one of the Cannes Lion’s most important players, hosting the the week’s most in-demand party and programming five days of sessions in the convention center, principally with the firm’s clients. We spoke with Kassan this week about his efforts on behalf of media and technology clients ranging from Conde Nast to Machinima.  Kassan’s firm, which consults to the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, arranged to have News Corp published a full edition of the New York Post, titled the Cannes edition which was given out on the show floor.

Information network picks up a small startup versed in surfacing the best social updates from local businesses, but shuts down its app.

Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Wednesday it's time for the Federal Communications Commission to take action on an 18-month-old petition to lift the sports blackout rule. For sports fans, few things are more frustrating than the decades-old rule that prohibits cable and satellite services from airing an NFL game that's been blacked out on the local TV station because the game didn't sell out in the stadium. Following heavy lobbying by the Sports Fan Coalition (a group of cable providers and public interest groups), the FCC opened up a proceeding in January 2012 asking for comment on what the agency should do about the rule, but it stopped short of opening up a rulemaking. In their letter to acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, the Senators said it was high time the FCC took the next step on an issue that would serve the public interest. "Commenters have put forth a wide range of proposals, from maintaining the sports blackout rule in its current form, to establishing a sunset and renewal process, to eliminating the rule altogether," the Senators wrote, adding that the commission has "ample authority" to act without Congress. The NFL and other sports leagues oppose the lifting the rules because it helps the teams fill seats for home games.

With millions of visitors every day KickassTorrents (KAT) is one of the largest torrent sites on the Internet, trailing only behind The Pirate Bay. This popularity attracted the attention of several copyright holder groups, including the Philippine record label association PARI. In an attempt to shut down the site, PARI launched a legal procedure in which the KAT.ph domain owners are accused of facilitating copyright infringements. This resulted in the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) issuing a temporary restraining order last week. The dotPH registry was ordered to suspend the domain name for 72 hours, a period which has now ended. This means that once again the KickassTorrents team has full control over its KAT.ph domain. Although the torrent site isn’t expected to revert to the .ph domain, the move is important as the KickassTorrents team are able to point the site’s users to the new Kickass.to domain. This minimizes the loss in visitors and helps Google to index the site’s new home. At the same time the legal proceedings will continue behind the scenes. The dotPH registry, which maintains the database of PH domain names, say that the domain owners now have the option to appeal the court’s decision. The company adds that the domain could again be at risk if the previous order comes back into effect. “If the restraining order is extended, we will comply and suspend the domain,” dotPH founder Emil Avancena tells TorrentFreak. Whether this will happen is uncertain at this point. The KickassTorrents team hasn’t made any public comments on the case thus far. However, the Intellectual Property Office says that it will try to hear all sides of the story before making a final decision. “Unless the complainant voluntarily desists from pursuing the case, it shall proceed. The IPOPHL shall decide on the matter based on the evidence presented by all parties,” IPOPHL informs TorrentFreak. Even if the action results in a permanent domain seizure, this will achieve very little as KickassTorrents has already moved to another domain. DotPH’s Emil Avancena agrees that domain seizures are not very useful when it comes to making websites unavailable to the public. He sees more results from ISP blockades, which have become more prevalent in European countries recently. “It’s a simple matter to move to another domain. Getting ISPs to block the sites would be more effective but not foolproof, as the Great Firewall of China has shown,” Avancena says. KickassTorrents, meanwhile, appears to be unfazed by all the commotion and continues business as usual at the new Kickass.to domain. It’s unknown if they intend to file an appeal and in their announcement of the domain change there is no mention of a legal case at all. “We had to drop Kat.ph as a part of our global maintenance and move to Kickass.to. This was a hard decision, but it was necessary for the further development of KickassTorrents,” the KAT staff explain. Source: KickassTorrents Regains Control Over KAT.ph, Legal Case Continues