Daily Marauder

MISC

“Slumdog Millionaire,” the big winner at this year’s Academy Awards, almost didn’t get distributed. The film, made for about $15 million with a cast of unknowns, was picked up by News Corp.’s Fox Searchlight after Time Warner closed its small-picture divisions. (Iwantmedia 2/23, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aQYtugbs.BpY 2/22)

Three Southern California men are being charged with illegally posting pirated copies of Hollywood movies, including Oscar contenders “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” on the Internet. The three face as much as three years in prison if convicted. (Iwantmedia 2/23, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=abIdddTU1bqo 2/20)

With the proposed $2.5 billion merger between TicketMaster and Live Nation looming large, many venue owners and promoters are up in arms, deeming the deal anti-competitive and monopolistic.  Now ShowClix, a TicketMaster competitor that launched in early 2007, is launching the Fair Ticketing Fund, setting aside up to $5 million to entice venues and promoters away from the pending Live Nation Entertainment goliath. Other ticket vendors are also beginning to offer similar deals, including TicketBiscuit, which launched a $10 million fund last week. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/20/ticketing-startups-launch-multi-million-dollar-funds-to-combat-ticketmaster-merger/ 2/20)