The dollar has traded mostly softer today, though sterling has been the biggest loser as Brexit polls show a shift in support for the Leave campaign. The biggest gainers have been the yen, principally, and the Swiss franc. Stock markets in Asia and Europe have continued to fall, oil prices have lost over 1%, extending last week's correction from trend highs, and sovereign bonds have continued to rally. A batch of Chinese data, particularly fixed asset investment and industrial value figures, fanned investors' growth concerns.
This year HBO decided to stop releasing promotional Game of Thrones screeners to the press.
The drastic move was taken to prevent early leaks, as had happened last year. However, thus far this strategy hasn’t been very effective.
While no screener releases have come out, as planned, the company itself has been the source of several breaches already.
Sunday afternoon, several hours before the official premiere, episode 8 of Game of Thrones’ latest season was already being shared online by tens of thousands of people.
A high quality copy with the scene release group tag “EXCLUSiVE” quickly spread to various torrent sites, giving pirates the exclusive indeed.
While it’s unclear how the group got their hands on the early copy, it appears that HBO may be to blame. The episode carries the regular HBO watermark and the “WEB” release tag shows that the video was ripped from an online service, likely HBO Go.
In addition to the Game of Thrones, HBO’s Veep and Silicon Valley were also released several hours early by the same scene group.
HBO leaks
This isn’t the first episode of Game of Thrones to came out early this year. The same happened with the fifth episode due to a mistake at HBO Nordic. In addition, the season premiere also leaked a few hours early according to some reports.
For several years in a row Game of Thrones has been the most pirated TV-show, and this year the interest is once again overwhelming. What appears to be changing is HBO’s attitude towards those who share the show without permission.
Not too long ago HBO CEO Jeff Bewkes said that GoT’s piracy records were “better than an Emmy,” but the company gradually increased its efforts to combat unauthorized sharing.
Over the past several weeks thousands of pirates have received warnings in their mailboxes, the company is also fervently taking down links to pirated copies of the show, and “porn” clips and spoilers have been targeted.
X-Men: Apocalypse is the most downloaded movie for the third week in a row.
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.
Sterling looks to remain pressured with the FT's poll tracker showing, for the first time, the Leave campaign in the lead, with 46% support versus 44% support for Remain, shifting from respective levels of 45% and 43% on Friday. This follows the inclusion of two new polls released on Friday. The terrorist attack in Orlando at the weekend will, if anything, serve to indirectly swell sentiment for the Leave campaign. The pound has clocked six-week lows against both the dollar, at 1.4158, and the euro.
Like many who first heard the news last weekend, I don’t admitting that I was moved by a video uploaded by YouTuber Lewis Bond. Seeing someone scared – terrified even – isn’t fun.
An aspiring young filmmaker, Bond runs Channel Criswell on YouTube and his work shows excellent promise for a fruitful career. Sadly, his immediate future looks decidedly more gloomy.
The details can be found here, but essentially a 20 minute video analysis of Stanley Kubrick movies created by UK-based Bond has provoked a lawsuit from a company holding the copyrights to some of the music tracks featured in the background.
In a nutshell, Bond appears to have a firm belief that he has a strong fair-use case. Serendip LLC, which owns the copyrights to the music featured in the 1971 movie ‘A Clockwork Orange’, beg to differ. Take a moment or two to listen to the track in question at the start of the video below, it’s important.
The end result is a lawsuit which could see Bond on the receiving end of $150,000 in statutory damages for each infringement. From everything seen to date, it seems unlikely the 23-year-old can come up with that kind of cash. It’s possible he’ll struggle to finance a defense.
Seeing Bond visibly choked was a sad sight and it got me thinking. While undoubtedly a wonderful and timeless piece of music, is a track from 1971 really bringing in the money for Clockwork Orange composer Wendy Carlos today? Has Bond’s fleeting reproduction of a part of this track in his documentary caused real financial damage?
I don’t have the answer to those questions but while researching this case I came across something that surprised even me, a huge ClockWork Orange fan. Although arranged and performed by Carlos, the main theme from A Clockwork Orange isn’t her work at all. In fact, the entire piece – virtually note for note – has been lifted from a piece penned by composer Henry Purcell.
Born in England in September 1659, Purcell developed into what many consider to be one of the country’s greatest composers. His 1695 piece ‘Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary’ was played at the funeral of Queen Mary II, who had died in December of the previous year.
It is an abridged version of this music that forms the entire basis of Carlos’ 1971 work. Arrangement and beautiful synthesizer work aside, it’s virtually identical.
Purcell died in 1695 and quite rightfully his work is now in the public domain. As a result Wendy Carlos was absolutely within her right to take this piece and run with it and as a supporter of remix culture, I salute her efforts entirely.
Sadly, however, I can’t help but note the sad hypocrisy here. Just for a moment, let’s cast aside the legalities of copyright law and instead focus on the notion of artists using the work of others to create new art.
In the 1970s, Carlos took Purcell’s work and modernized it beautifully and there are now millions of people out there who only know her version of the work. By taking his work, she has touched audiences in a way Purcell could not. It’s probably worth noting that Carlos undoubtedly made more money from Purcell’s work than Purcell ever did too, and good for her.
Importantly, in the same manner that Carlos paid homage to Purcell with her work, by opening his video with Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary the main theme from Clockwork Orange, in turn Bond paid homage to Carlos. It strikes me that rather than having disrespect for each other, all involved in this downward chain deeply appreciate each other’s talents.
Of course, since Bond’s channel is monetized, Carlos believes she should be paid for her work. Bond, on the other hand, is stuck in a fair use dilemma, and will have to fight an expensive court battle to find out who is in the right. Let’s face it, that is not going to happen.
Bond is unlikely to put up any kind of fight and whatever happens – win or lose – Serendip/Carlos aren’t going to get a penny from Bond in the UK. What I’m saying today is that among business people – among artists – in today’s climate there must be a better way to sort this out.
Getting the parties to talk might not be easy, but there are plenty of options if they just take the opportunity. Bond won’t have made much from his video, but paying a small sum to Carlos might be an option, if he doesn’t have the stomach for a fair use war.
The option I like best, however, is a collaboration. Carlos has talents. Bond has talents too. So, as artists, why not do something together? When it comes down to it they have a lot in common. Both have made new creative works on the backs of other people’s efforts without paying them a dime. That alone provides the basis for discussion – they’re already on the same page.
But most of all, why are people wasting each other’s lives with these pointless lawsuits? On YouTube there are plenty of instances where people have uploaded the whole of Carlos’ work, literally a full-fledged pirate copy of everything notable she’s ever done. They’re freely available on the platform today yet Bond – someone who brings something creative to the party – faces financial ruination? That makes no sense.
Although Wendy Carlos and her representatives failed to respond to our requests for comment, there may be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. A TorrentFreak reader managed to make contact with someone on Wendy Carlos’ site who fired back quite an email. It ends as follows:
“There is much bad advice on the internet about copyright and the use of music on YouTube, but some very good advice that should be followed is not to post other people’s copyrighted music on the internet ‘because you like it and want others to hear it’,” the email reads.
“This YouTube user would also be well advised to follow the old saw that ‘when you find yourself in a hole, you should stop digging.’ His problems might go away if he would just ‘undo’ his previous bad choices.”
That sounds like an olive branch. Someone might like to grab it.
The post-recession global economic environment has been plagued by a combination of crisis and controversial policy responses. The potential for a “Grexit” in 2012 took the EU to the edge of calamity, while the current possibility of a “Brexit” is slowing UK growth. China’s declining commodity demand slowed non-OECD countries growth. And few governments engaged in meaningful fiscal stimulus, forcing central banks to perform the economic heavy lifting.
Before delving into this column’s details, I feel obligated to state that I have a very deep admiration for Chairperson Yellen. She is a very accomplished economist and perhaps the most qualified person to ever lead the Federal Reserve. That being said, I believe the data shows she is misreading the strength of the economy. And if that’s correct, then her expressed desire to raise rates would be a mistake.
Let’s begin with her analysis of the U.S. labor market:
