[mookydooky]

Most of you are aware of the RIAA, but are you folks also aware of the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America? These are the folks who put the rating on the movies, you know, G, PG, PG-13, R, and the ever so popular NC-17. One of their other tasks is to handle the distribution of media to Academy Award voters to nominate candiates for the Oscars. The media is usually in the form of DVDs and videocassettes. Jack Valenti and the MPAA have decided to ban distribution of movies in DVDs and videocassettes to the Academy voters. This basically means the Academy voters will have to see the movies in the theaters. Due to the fact that small budget films and other non-mainstream films are typically not shown much in theaters, this would limit severely limit the reach of these films to Academy voters. This would be a shame since many of these films only reach a wide audience once they are recognized by the Academy. Think "Bowling for Columbine." How many of you saw that in the theaters. Anyway, the reasoning for the the ban is that many of these pre-release films are showing up on the internet available for download. Some are even burning them onto DVD and selling them. I know, I've seen them. I think they're justified in the action, but I also think it's short sighted of them and I believe they could come up with something better than an all out ban. Just thought you guys would like to know.