Alternative distribution channels for digital cinema have become mainstream, though conventional legitimacy seems far from the minds of the people using them, according to a panel at the June 16 at VIDFEST. The panelists at the Vancouver event described a rapid proliferation in the number of platforms that can be used to distribute cinematic pieces, including mobile phones, the web and ITV, but none of the speakers on the panel, Get Your Work Seen: Alternative Distribution Channels, were interested in winning the same mainstream press attention that accrues to big budget Hollywood fare.

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Video game developers and academics have a great deal to teach each other, but few avenues to explore an educational dialog, according to a panel discussion held in Vancouver June 17. An evening plenary session at the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) conference Changing Views: Worlds in Play, saw four of the video game industry’s leading lights face an audience of university professors and students, with each side admitting that they haven’t been in close enough touch as new games hardware such as the Microsoft Xbox360, and next generation Sony and Nintendo consoles make possible ever greater levels of gameplay immersion.

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The Canadian recording industry lobby hasn’t decided yet whether or not to appeal this month’s CRTC subscription radio decision, with which it is "deeply disappointed." The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is unhappy because the commission failed to impose any conditions on the three new subscription radio licencees that would protect against digital piracy. CRIA head Graham Henderson tells Canadian NEW MEDIA he hasn’t ruled out an appeal of Broadcasting Public Notice 2005-61 pending discussions with other industry players and the lobby group’s board of directors.

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There were few fireworks on the Copyright Board of Canada’s first day of hearings into a steep new proposed tariff on ringtones. On June 21, the board began hearing factual evidence around Tariff 24, a 10% tariff proposed by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) on ringtones. A coalition made up of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, the major record labels, as well as Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility will attack the tariff proposal on at least two fronts over the next week or so. They are expected to argue that there is no communication to the public by telecommunications that would entitle SOCAN to a tariff, and that even if such a communications exists, that SOCAN’s members are a small part of the value chain, and that the tariff should be much lower.

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The Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund could receive a small financial windfall if Bell ExpressVu’s application to change its contribution guidelines for its pay-per-view (PPV) service is approved by the CRTC. As part of its PPV licence renewal application (Broadcasting PN 2005-59), ExpressVu has asked the regulator to allow it to put all of its PPV-related programming contributions into the Bell Fund. The hit would be offset somewhat by its request to change its method of calculating those contributions, but the net effect could still see the Bell Fund grow richer by several hundred thousand dollars per year.

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