Music streaming service Spotify said Monday it had disabled accounts from a piracy activist hacker group that claimed to have “backed up” millions of Spotify’s music files and metadata.
The group Anna’s Archives said in a blog post it had backed up 86 million Spotify tracks and the metadata for 256 million tracks — a process known as “scraping” — in order to start an open “preservation archive” for music.
Anna’s Archives said the 86 million music files represented more than 99.6 percent of Spotify “listens”, while the metadata copies represented 99.9 percent of all tracks on Spotify.
The breach, which has no impact on Spotify users, means that in theory anyone could use the information to build their own free music archive, though in practice they would be swiftly pursued by rights holders.
“Spotify has identified and disabled the nefarious user accounts that engaged in unlawful scraping,” the company said in a statement sent to AFP.
“We’ve implemented new safeguards for these types of anti-copyright attacks and are actively monitoring for suspicious behaviour,” it said.
“Since day one, we have stood with the artist community against piracy, and we are actively working with our industry partners to protect creators and defend their rights.” (Guardian)
Warner Bros Discovery has told its shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance’s $108.4bn (£80.75bn) takeover bid.
Paramount had said its offer was”superior” to a $72bn deal that Warner Bros struck with Netflix for its film and streaming businesses.
But in a dramatic plot twist in the story of who will take control of one of Hollywood’s oldest and most famous movie studios, Warner Brother’s board “unanimously” recommended rejecting the offer and agreed the deal with Netflix was in the firm’s best interests.
The media giant put itself up for sale in October after receiving “multiple” expressions of interest from potential buyers, including approaches from Paramount Skydance.
On 5 December, Warner Bros Discovery said it had agreed to sell its film and streaming businesses to Netflix.
In a lengthy legal filing, Warner Bros Discovery’s board said the offer from Paramount poses numerous and significant risks, and strongly rejects the idea that the Ellison family – one of America’s richest – is financially supporting the bid.
Paramount is backed by the billionaire Ellison family, which has close ties to the president.
In a reflection of where power now lies in the entertainment industry, the Warner Bros board says the offer from streaming giant Netflix is well financed and offers better long term value to shareholders.
Netflix welcomed the recommendation from Warner Bros. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-chief executive, called the company’s merger agreement “superior” and “in the best interest of stockholders”.
In a letter to Warner Bros shareholders, Netflix reiterated its stance that its bid for Warner Bros involves a clearer funding structure and less regulatory risk.
Paramount could still come back with another offer, meaning the take-over saga gripping Hollywood isn’t over yet.
The are considerable differences between the Netflix and Paramount offers.
Netflix wants to buy Warner Bros. movie studio and its HBO streaming service, which would also give it access to Warner Bros’ rich library of content and secure access to those movies and shows for its subscribers.
But it doesn’t want the media giant’s pay-TV channels. If Warner Bros. goes with the Netflix deal it would leave Warner Bros to sell off its television networks, such as CNN and TNT, into a separate company before the takeover is completed.
Paramount, on the other hand, wants to buy Warner Bros in its entirety, which would mean acquiring competitors to its own TV channels such as CBS, MTV and Showtime.
Regulators might raise questions about an erosion of consumer choice, as the entertainment industry continues to consolidate ownership. (BBC)
The Oscars will be shown only on YouTube from 2029, the Academy said Wednesday, in a radical gambit for a movie industry that remains wary of streaming platforms even as viewing habits shift online.
The new five-year deal means Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony will be viewable exclusively online for the first time, ending a decades-long relationship with US broadcaster ABC.
The decision will allow the Academy Awards to reach “the largest worldwide audience possible — which will be beneficial for our Academy members and the film community,” said Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer and President Lynette Howell Taylor in a statement.
The annual Oscars, which celebrate the year’s top achievements in film and draw the world’s biggest A-list stars, are regularly watched by around 20 million Americans, and millions more globally.
ABC’s latest contract to broadcast the show had been due to end in 2028, with the 100th Academy Awards. The Disney-owned channel will continue to air the Oscars up until then.
But the new deal with Google-owned YouTube represents a bold new direction for the show at a time when audiences increasingly watch all types of content online.
Streamers owned by Silicon Valley firms have lured top talent away from traditional Hollywood studios with massive contracts — despite filmmakers’ concerns that they rarely show movies on the big screen in theaters for extended runs.
Streamers have also gradually gained wider acceptance at the Academy Awards, where Apple won best picture for “CODA” in 2022.
The SAG Awards, another important Hollywood awards gala which recently rebranded as The Actors Awards, have already moved to Netflix.
YouTube accounts for the biggest share of television viewing time in the United States of any streaming platform, dwarfing even Netflix.
“This collaboration will leverage YouTube’s vast reach and infuse the Oscars and other Academy programming with innovative opportunities for engagement while honoring our legacy,” said the Academy statement.
Financial terms of the new Oscars deal were not disclosed.
Industry website Deadline said “the amount that YouTube was willing to pay didn’t make sense for Disney,” citing anonymous insiders.
An ABC Entertainment spokesperson told AFP: “ABC has been the proud home to The Oscars for more than half a century.
“We look forward to the next three telecasts, including the show’s centennial celebration in 2028, and wish the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continued success.”
Like Hollywood more broadly, the Oscars have endured a challenging time in recent years, as younger generations’ viewing habits shift.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Oscars ratings sank as low as 10.4 million.
The most recent Oscars were viewed by 19.69 million people — the highest in five years — as the ceremony was shown live simultaneously on Disney’s streamer Hulu along with ABC.
But the Hulu stream suffered technical glitches that left some viewers unable to see the final prizes.
The Academy Awards telecast regularly topped 40 million just over a decade ago. (Vanguard)
Jimmy Kimmel slammed Donald Trump during his Monday night broadcast of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for saying Rob Reiner died “due to the anger he caused others” through his “Trump derangement syndrome.”
“What we need at a time like this, besides common sense when it comes to guns and mental health care, is compassion and leadership. We did not get that from our president, because he has none of it to give. Instead, we got a fool rambling about nonsense,” Kimmel said. “For Rob and Michele Reiner, we got this post.”
Kimmel then recited Trump’s Monday morning Truth Social post, which read, “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”
The president continued, “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”
“It’s so hateful and vile,” Kimmel said of the post. “When I first saw it, I thought it was fake. My wife showed it to me this morning. I was like, ‘Even for him, that seemed like too much.’ But nothing is ever too much for him.”
Kimmel then turned his attention to an Oval Office press conference, where Trump was given “the chance to take another shot to act like a human being” and take back his post on Reiner. Trump instead doubled down.
“I wasn’t a fan of his at all,” Trump told reporters Monday. “He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned. He knew it was false. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. He said I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia. You know, the Russia hoax. He was one of the people behind it. I think he hurt himself career-wise. He became like a deranged person. Trump derangement syndrome. So, I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.”
“That corroded brain is in charge of our lives,” Kimmel said. “If you voted for that, it’s OK to reconsider. It’s perfectly fine. I have to say, I know from my personal interactions with Rob Reiner that he would want us to keep pointing out the loathsome atrocities that continue to ooze out of this sick and irresponsible man’s mouth. So we’re going to do that over and over again until the rest of us wake up.”
Kimmel wasn’t the only late-night host to discuss Reiner. Colbert opened his Monday night broadcast with a preface in light of Reiner’s death, as well as the shootings at Bondi Beach and Brown University.
“Hello, everybody,” a somber Colbert said at his desk. “Normally, we start the show with a short cold open about a major news story of the day. But after the terrible news this past weekend, the horrifying Hanukkah massacre at Bondi Beach, the tragic shootings at Brown University and the heartbreaking deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner, all of the major stories are too dark for that. Other people’s tragedy is sacred ground, and we try very hard not to walk there. But we are going to do a comedy show tonight, in light of and in spite of the darkness.”
Reiner, a prolific filmmaker who broke into Hollywood starring in “All in the Family” before directing films like “Stand by Me,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” “This Is Spinal Tap” and “A Few Good Men,” was found stabbed to death Sunday afternoon in his Brentwood home alongside his wife of 36 years, Michele Singer. Reiner was 78, and Singer was 70. (Variety)
Mariah Carey is going to add some American pop-star pedigree to the opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
The local organizing committee announced on Monday that the 56-year-old Carey — the “All I Want for Christmas is You” singer — is the first international star named to perform in the Feb 6 ceremony at Milan’s San Siro soccer stadium.
“Ci vediamo a Milano” — ‘See you in Milan’ — Carey said on Instagram.
Carey sang the U.S. national anthem at the 2002 Super Bowl but has never performed at the game’s halftime show. She has won six Grammy awards.
Carey has recorded 19 No. 1 hits, according to Billboard, which lists her as the fourth-greatest recording artist of all time, trailing the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elton John.
A crowd of 60,000 spectators is slated for the opening ceremony, with millions more expected to watch on television.
“Mariah Carey fully represents the emotional atmosphere that accompanies the run-up to the Games,” the committee said. “Music is a universal language that attracts different stories and sensibilities, and intertwines with the opening ceremony’s theme of harmony.”
The only other detail announced for the ceremony so far is that there will be a tribute to the late fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who died at his home in Milan in September at the age of 91.
The Games will be spread over northern Italy, and simultaneous but smaller opening ceremonies are to be held in three mountain clusters as well.
The main ceremony will put a spotlight on the San Siro, which is home to the Inter Milan and AC Milan soccer clubs. It is set to be torn down and replaced by a new stadium after the Games.
Internationally acclaimed ballet star Roberto Bolle will headline the closing ceremony, which is slated for Verona’s ancient Roman Arena on Feb 22. (JapanToday)
As Disney has gone into business with OpenAI, the Mouse House is accusing Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale” using AI models and services to “commercially exploit and distribute” infringing images and videos.
On Wednesday evening, attorneys for Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, demanding that Google stop the alleged infringement in its AI systems.
“Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights,” reads the letter to Google’s general counsel from law firm Jenner & Block on behalf of Disney.
The letter continued, “Google operates as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, rendering, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a mass scale. And compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services are branded with Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney.”
According to the letter, which Variety has reviewed, Disney alleges that Google’s AI systems and services infringe Disney characters including those from “Frozen,” “The Lion King,” “Moana,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Deadpool,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Toy Story,” “Brave,” “Ratatouille,” “Monsters Inc.,” “Lilo & Stich,” “Inside Out” and franchises such as Star Wars, the Simpsons, and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man. In its letter, Disney included examples of images it claims were generated by text prompts in Google’s AI apps, including of Darth Vader
The allegations against Google follows cease-and-desist letters that Disney sent earlier to Meta and Character.AI, as well as litigation Disney filed together with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery against AI companies Midjourney and Minimax alleging copyright infringement.
Asked for comment, a Google spokesperson said, “We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.”
According to Disney, the company has been raising its concerns with Google for months — but says Google hasn’t done anything in response, and that i anything, Google’s infringement has only increased during that time.
Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, in an interview with CNBC Thursday, said, “Well, we’ve been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we’ve gone after other companies that have not honored our IP, not respected our IP, not valued it. And this is another example of us doing just that.”
Iger said Disney had been in discussions with Google “basically expressing our concerns” about its AI systems’ alleged infringement. “And ultimately, because we didn’t really make any progress, the conversations didn’t bear fruit, we felt we had no choice but to send them a cease-and-desist [letter].”
Disney’s letter to Google demands that Google “immediately cease further copying, publicly displaying, publicly performing, distributing, and creating derivative works of Disney’s copyrighted characters” in “outputs of Google’s AI Services, including through YouTube’s mobile app, YouTube Shorts and YouTube.” (Variety)
A teaser trailer has been released for the new “Street Fighter” live-action film, featuring Chun-Li, Ken, Ryu and more characters from the highly popular video game franchise.
The trailer debuted during the 2025 Game Awards, where the film’s cast took the stage to introduce the first look at the movie.
The new “Street Fighter” movie is set in 1993, and, according to an official synopsis: “Estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s game over!”
In addition to Koji, Centineo and Liang, the cast includes Cody Rhodes as Guile, Orville Peck as Vega, 50 Cent as Balrog, Jason Momoa as Blanka, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Oliver Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Roman Reigns as Akuma, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Eric André as Don Sauvage, Mel Jarnson as Cammy, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli and Alexander Volkanovski as Joe.
“Street Fighter” is directed by Kitao Sakurai from a screenplay by Dalan Musson. Legendary co-produced with Japanese video game developer Capcom, while Paramount Pictures is distributing the film.
Disney is experiencing the highs and lows the box office has to offer. On one hand, the studio’s animated sequel “Zootopia 2” returned to No. 1 in North America in its third weekend after sprinting past the $1 billion mark. On the other, the political dramedy “Ella McCay” cratered with $2.1 million in its domestic debut, suffering one of the worst openings in modern times for Disney.
To be fair, “Ella McCay” cost $35 million to produce, which is way less than Disney tends to spend on its theatrical releases. Most of the studio’s movies — including franchise fare from Marvel and “Avatar,” as well as family-friendly sensations like “Inside Out 2” and “Lilo & Stitch” — typically carry budgets above $200 million. Although “Ella McCay” isn’t in danger of turning a profit for Disney, the PG-13 misfire probably won’t cause heads to roll, either.
“Ella McCay,” written and directed by “The Simpsons” co-creator and “As Good As It Gets” filmmaker James L. Brooks, landed behind already low projections of $4 million. It’s not exactly a mystery as to why ticket sales missed the mark. “Ella McCay” is the kind of mid-budget film that studios hardly make anymore because audiences don’t show up to see them. And this one — a comedic drama about a young politician (Emma Mackey) who unexpectedly becomes her state’s governor — was roundly rejected by critics (a 24% Rotten Tomatoes average) and moviegoers (a “B-” grade on CinemaScore exit polls). “Ella McCay” continues a miserable box office run for Brooks after 2004’s “Spanglish” ($55 million against an $80 million budget) and 2010’s “How Do You Know?” ($48 million against a $120 million budget). However, the Oscar-winner could end his theatrical dry spell with Disney and 20th Century’s “The Simpsons Movie” in 2027.
“James L. Brooks defined character storytelling in the ‘80s and ‘90s with a string of award-winning comedy dramas,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “Today, you can find material like this on television and even on social media, where it benefits from authenticity.”
“Zootopia 2,” after ceding the top spot to Universal and Blumhouse’s horror sequel “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” returned to first place with $26.3 million in its third weekend, a 39% decline from its prior outing. The family-friendly adventure has grossed $259 million domestically and $1.13 billion globally to date to stand as just the second Hollywood release this year to cross the coveted $1 billion mark.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” slid to second place with $19.5 million, a brutal 70% drop from its scary-good $64 million debut. That’s rough, but not as bad as the original “Five Nights at Freddy’s” — which cratered by 76.2% in its second weekend while playing simultaneously on streaming. Still, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” cost just $36 million and registers as an undisputed win for Blumhouse, having already grossed $95 million and $173 million globally after two weekends in theaters.
“Wicked: For Good” remained at No. 3 with $8.5 million in its fourth weekend of release, a 51% decline from its prior outing. So far, Universal’s big-budget musical has earned $312 million domestically and $467 million globally. “Wicked: For Good” appears to be running out of steam much faster than its predecessor, 2024’s “Wicked,” which powered to $474 million in North America and $758 million globally.
A standout at the specialty box office includes Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” with $1.5 million from 749 venues. (That’s roughly $500,000 less than “Ella McCay” despite playing in a fraction of the number of theaters.) So far, “Hamnet, a well-reviewed tragedy starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal that follows the death of William Shakespeare’s son, has amassed $7 million to date. (Variety)
Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged “One Battle After Another” leads the nominations for the Golden Globes with nine, organizers announced Monday, as the race to the Oscars kicked into high gear.
Norwegian family dramedy “Sentimental Value” was second with eight. It is followed by period horror movie “Sinners” with seven and Shakespeare family drama “Hamnet” with six.
“Wicked: For Good” ended up with five nominations – a disappointing showing for the smash hit musical, which failed to secure a nod for best musical/comedy.
The Globes, set for January 11, are widely seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards.
The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals – widening the field of stars who could walk the red carpet, and fueling the suspense.
“One Battle After Another,” which centers on an aging revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti), leads the contenders in the comedy/musical categories.
The film is a rollicking ride featuring leftist radical violence, immigration raids and white supremacists.
It won a pile of nominations, including best comedy/musical picture, best director and five acting nods: DiCaprio, Infiniti, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor.
“Sentimental Value,” a moving story of a fractured family, won nominations for Swedish legend Stellan Skarsgard and co-star Renate Reinsve.
It is one of several foreign language films to gain traction in the main categories, along with Brazil’s “The Secret Agent” and South Korea’s “No Other Choice.”
On the drama side, past Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence (“Die, My Love”) and Julia Roberts (“After the Hunt”) will do battle with Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”), Reinsve, Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”) and Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”).
Each main category will have six nominees, not five as in past years.
On the drama side, beyond the leader “Sentimental Value,” the top contenders all delve into the past.
“Sinners,” from “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, stars Michael B. Jordan as twins in the criminal underworld who encounter a sinister force as they return home to racially segregated Mississippi in the 1930s.
The film was a runaway box office success, and both Coogler and Jordan secured nominations. It led the nods for the Critics Choice Awards on Friday with 17.
“It has so much going for it – it’s a big moneymaker, it was a culturally significant hit,” explained Davis.
“Hamnet,” from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, who tries to forge a career as a playwright while his wife Agnes – played by Buckley – contends with the perils of plague and childbirth in Elizabethan England.
Both stars earned nominations, along with Zhao.
Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation of “Frankenstein” earned five nominations including one for Jacob Elordi as the iconic monster.
Oscar nominations are due on January 22, so the picks for the Globes will begin to map the road to the Academy Awards.
The Globes also honor the best in television, with HBO’s black comedy anthology “The White Lotus,” sci-fi office thriller “Severance” and searing teen murder saga “Adolescence” leading the contenders.
Last year’s Globes gala hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser was a hit with audiences, with more than 10 million tuning in.
Glaser will return as host of the January 11 gala in Beverly Hills. (Vanguard)
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, a Tokyo-born actor known for his roles in the film “Mortal Kombat” and TV series “The Man in the High Castle” has died. He was 75.
Tagawa died surrounded by his family in Santa Barbara from complications due to a stroke, his manager, Margie Weiner, confirmed on Thursday.
“Cary was a rare soul: generous, thoughtful, and endlessly committed to his craft,” she said in an email. “His loss is immeasurable. My heart is with his family, friends, and all who loved him.”
Tagawa’s decades of film and TV roles truly got off the ground in 1987 when he appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning film “The Last Emperor.” Since then, he appeared in such films as “Pearl Harbor,” “Planet of the Apes” and “License to Kill.”
Tagawa was raised mostly in the US South while his Hawaii-born father was assigned to US mainland Army bases. He lived in Honolulu and on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a while.
Tagawa’s father met his mother while stationed in Japan, Tagawa told Honolulu Magazine in 2004. His parents named him after Cary Grant and his brother after Gregory Peck, he said.
His mother, Ayako, had been a stage actor in Japan, according to the Honolulu weekly newspaper Midweek. Tagawa said she asked him not to pursue acting because there weren’t many good roles for Asians.
He eventually began an acting career at age 36 after being a celery farmer, limo driver, pizza supply truck driver and photojournalist, he said.
“The good news for Asian actors and Hollywood is that it’s better than it’s ever been, but the bad news is that it hasn’t changed that much,” he told Midweek in 2005. “The opportunities haven’t increased that much, but commercially there’s more exposure.”
Tagawa played the Baron in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” a 2005 movie based on the bestselling novel chronicling a young girl’s rise from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society.
Some critics said the movie lacked authenticity, but Tagawa said it was unrealistic to expect a fictional work written and directed by Americans to fully reflect Japanese style and sensitivities.
“What did they expect? It wasn’t a documentary,″ Tagawa told The Associated Press in 2006. “Unless the Japanese did the movie, it’s all interpretation.″
Tagawa told the AP that he studied various martial acts but left because he wasn’t into fighting or competition.
Instead, he developed a system he called Ninjah Sportz, which incorporated martial arts as a training and healing tool. He worked with professional athletes like World Boxing Council light flyweight champion Brian Viloria and advised members of the University of Hawaii football team.
In 2008, Tagawa pleaded guilty in a Honolulu court to a petty misdemeanor charge of harassing a girlfriend. She had bruises to her legs, police said at the time.
His attorney said he took full responsibility for the case from the beginning and made no excuses. (CNN)
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