Slashdot Mirror

AtomFilms
IFilm

Where's the free music (not "pirated", but legitimate)?

MP3.com
iRATE
FreeMusic
EMusic (okay, not free, but flat-rate and dirt cheap)

Where's the *value*?

That's up to you to decide, of course. But there's plenty of legitimate big content out there.

The RIAA and media companies are using this idea that people of violating copy rights to mask the real objective of their proposed legislation.

Their real goal, is to force independant artists (musicians, videographers, filmmakers) to have to use the big name media companies to get their work to market. The big companies cannot stand the fact that independant artists can produce Hollywood grade material and get it to market without them.

That's what this is really about. They've chosen to use the copyright issue because they feel the general audience (consumers) can understand
such a topic but that consumers would not support such drastic measures if the truth was known.

The people that will feel the suffering the most should all of this crap pass with be those independant artists you find at places like Atom Films or MP3

In my opinion, the plugin scheme is really a sort of "crummy patch" to a widespread used technology (the browser). I think that these guys understood that and chose the path of a new internet client.

Now it's a conspiracy theory, tommorow it could kill all sorts of products and projects, like the browsers I mentioned. This patent could be bad for internet advancements anyway; it might be very hard to create an alternative scheme flexible enough to work around this patent.

Check out Atom Films's Psychic Pigs Tech Support . It's a Flash animation and pretty darn funyy.


Synopsis
Turn your technical problems over to the mystical powers of the psychic pigs, and all will be revealed!

Background
Late one night, it occurred to filmmaker Mark Clarkson that if he had access to a psychic, he wouldn't need love advice - he'd need to know how to get Netscape Mail to remember his password.

In his previous career as a software analyst for the Boeing Company, Clarkson was often getting in trouble for the cartoons that he would sketch on the whiteboard during long program compiles.

Clarkson is a regular contributor to several computer magazines, and a Contributing Editor at Desktop Engineering Magazine.

Fact
This animation took about two weeks to complete.

Atomfilms (and probably several other places around the net) has Psychic Pigs Tech Support [http://www.atomfilms.com/films/film.asp?film_id=9 07 for those concerned about goatliness.]

("The Sun card tells us your problem is server-side..."). It's Macromedia flash format.

Also check out Atom Films. It would probably take you a month to look through all the material that they have. The majority of it is independents with twisted minds, and even Tim Burton has some good stuff there (not that he is excluded from the aforementioned group of people).

$man microsoft

not at all...what he meant was 25 full length DVD quality Atom Films...yes...that's exactly what he meant..I plead possible legal use...

All of these corporate attacks on your liberty, all of these draconian restrictions are being paid for by the money YOU spend on corporate-sponsored books, DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes and trips to the multiplex. If you want it to stop you need to re-orient your priorities and better target your entertainment dollar.

If you like movies, go to Atomfilms or head down to the local art-house cinema that shows truly independent work instead of the mega-mall. If you like music, go to mp3.com or use services like Napster and pay artists you like directly via Fairtunes or Paypal. If you are an artist, release your work to the public under the terms of the OPL and let the public know about your account at Paypal.

Don't spend dime one on anything for sale at Amazon.com. Use your local library instead. If you simply must have some piece of corporate media, buy it used.

The only power these pimps have is the power YOU give them. For the DMCA and everything else the RIAA and MPAA have done to your rights, and plan to do to them in the future, you must choke off their access to the cash they expect to have available to fund their ongoing attacks against you, your family and your children. Hollywood has had a terrible year, box office receipts are way off. Keep it up! Make the first decade of the 21st century a finacial Waterloo for them!

Every one of these abuses flows from the ability of corporate money to pervert your democracy, your birthright. Support alternatives to the corrupt two-party system. One week from today vote Nader or Harry Browne.

Night
Geek Goddess

I don't know of any sites that you could rent movies on line, but if you like classic B-movies (they have the original Night of the Living Dead in streaming video in it's entirety), go to movieflix.com. If you like independent films, try atomfilms.com. They have some pretty funny stuff there. Both sites are free.

Disclaimer: I work for AtomFilms

Ok, this sucks for the independent short filmmaker. Short films have been underappreciated in the US for far too long simply because there hasn't been a good distribution infrastructure.
The web promises to change this, since short films are ideal for streaming media.
The academy's decision basically ignores the economic realities facing short filmmakers. If it's not on TV, the web or airline distribution, where do you see shorts? How often do you attend film festivals?
The ruling makes sense for feature films, since they have a large and profitable distribution network, but not shorts.

Views expressed in this post are mine and don't reflect those of my employer etc...

--Shoeboy
(former microserf)

My girlfriend works for AtomFilms.com in Seattle. They use Level3 and the colo building is just 1 mile from my office. When I traceroute to AtomFilms.com, Level3 routes my packets from Seattle to San Jose back to Seattle. Huh?? Why?

A bit offtopic, but the site that will be hosting the new Nick Park films, www.atomfilms.com, already has a ton of wonderful shorts on their site. My personal favourite has to be Jolly Roger, which is absolutely hilarious.

It's nice to see a group of people who, unlike some organisations we know, are committed to making full use of new technologies rather than launching litigation against anyone who sees potential in digital distribution.

On a related note, it's important to support sites like this. By spreading the word, and voicing your appreciation, we can encourage others to venture into this new realm of distribution. Don't let the MPAA control the course of technology! Support this kind of thing by downloading their stuff and possibly even buying a video/DVD of their animation. (No, I'm not affiliated with them, or the animation industry, in any way!)

As I say, it's great to see people who see the Internet as a great new means of distribution instead of a threat. Keep up the great work!

They've got a number of their works under the Aardman Observer section including Creature Comforts, one about a rambling old man's war story, and too many more.

You are given the choice of high or low bandwidth Real Media G2, or Windows Media.

Rant: while aardman's great animation, is it really slashdot news?

rOD.

--

Atomfilms

I've never been a big fan of streaming media

live365 and shoutcast

I listen to streaming music at least 5 hours a day, only stuff I want to, and NO commercials. Streaming music kicks ass (yes, you do need a broadband connection, dial-up is soo 20th century). I'll agree with you on the video part, but I don't think it will take 10 years. Things are improving on both ends, bandwidth and processing power. Bandwidth gets you the bits and processing rearranges them into pretty pictures. I've seen a few good streamers, and the pr0n industry seems to have it working fairly well (or so a little bird told me), but I think 3-5 years is more accurate than 10. With a good server, off-peak times, and a bit of luck I've gotten full screen video that's within a factor of 2 to TV (antennae) quality (Wierd Al's Star Wars video is a good example).

BTW, another good short film site is AtomFilms

I've ordered books from Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Buy.com. Both Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com had great customer service. I will never buy anything from Buy.com again. I won't go into my sob tale, but they "lost" my order, shipped me the wrong (and damaged) books, and then my books didn't arrive for 30 days. Their customer service people said they couldn't help, then told me order status info that conflicted with what their website's order status told me. Many times their customer service reps were so busy, I was transfered to a voice mail. Unfortunately, the voice mail box was full and refused to take my name+number. be-otches..

I now buy books and music exclusively from Barnesandnoble.com. I would use Amazon except I live in WA state, so I would have to pay sales tax. Also, Amazon just started selling short films online, competing with the startup company my girlfriend works for (AtomFilms.com).