Top 12 Stories of 2003:

#1: MPAA attempts to ban screeners.

For those who didn't read any entertainment news, or watch any local TV news programs, during the early fall, the barebones facts of the story are this: Given the increase in pirated films appearing on the Internet, Valenti decreed that no more screeners would be provided to AMPAS members during awards season. That simple sentence may make the entire thing appear to be the proverbial tempest-in-a-teapot. After all, wasn't Valenti just acting to protect the work of the talent by circumventing possible copyright infringement?

Well, yes and no. You see, part of the problem lies with how the system works. Most of the members of the Academy don't get out and about much, and independent films are not always available in all areas of the country for critics to seek out on their own. Over the years, both groups have increasingly relied on the screeners sent out by studios to catch up on films that may have come and gone too quickly, not received a wide release, or just to brush up on some of the more complex films up for awards consideration. For a large percentage of smaller films, this is the only way they can be seen by critics and Academy voters. Most of the indie studios don't have the wherewithal of a Miramax to mount Oscar campaigns and make sure every possible voter has seen every performance being touted for an award. So Valenti's action was rightly seen as an unnecessary punishment of independent filmmakers and smaller releases in a vain, not to mention doomed to failure, attempt to put the technological genie back into the bottle and keep movies from hitting the Internet before they're released on DVD.

Which leads back to the core problem: Valenti, and by extension the MPAA, is no longer in touch with what is really going on in Hollywood, much less the world, if in fact he and it ever really was. There were many reliable and effective ways of stopping screeners from being copied and distributed with impunity which would have had no impact on the 99.99% of the honest members of the press, critics' societies and AMPAS who simply watch the films so they can pick year-end award winners. Not to mention the fact that Valenti had no real evidence that screeners had ever been used in the fashion his draconian measure was intended to prevent.

The bottom line to this story is that, after a flurry of publicity, including calls by some critics to boycott year-end awards altogether, Valenti finally got the message and screeners will go out as in years past, likely with encoding of some type to make copies traceable to a particular party. But the real story is yet to be resolved: In an age where electronic copies of audio and video products are becoming easier and easier to make and distribute, all with no loss of quality, how do you prevent the hijacking of copyrighted material without alienating your fan-base? Or even more importantly, members of your own industry and the people who help perpetuate it?

That answer, gentle readers, is still to be determined. (Stephanie Star Smith/BOP)

The Top 12 Stories of 2003: