A couple of months ago we wrote that podcasting was under threat from a patent troll. At that time, a patent troll named Personal Audio LLC had sued three podcasters and sent demand letters to a number of others. Since then, Personal Audio has filed two new lawsuits—this time against CBS and NBC. It has also sent additional demand letters to small podcasting operations. We’ve written often in the past about how patent trolls are a drain on innovation, and this latest troll is no exception. Since many podcasters barely make a profit, or simply do it for love, a shakedown from a patent troll…

Behind the Lines Productions, the company behind a Twilight parody called Twiharder, has filed a $500 million suit against the makers of the Twilight films. In a 219-page complaint obtained by EW, the parodists write that they were planning to release their film last fall — around the same time that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 hit theaters.

But after Summit and Lionsgate sent out a cease-and-desist letter, the plaintiffs claim, potential distributors grew skittish about risking the larger studios’ ire — even though Behind the Lines says its parody falls under the terms of…

The company has been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit by a man who claims that he came up with numerous elements of the hugely successful “Pirates” film series, including characters, supernatural elements, storylines, plots, themes, sequence structures and screenplay elements, according to court documents obtained by TheWrap.

In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Florida on Tuesday, Florida resident Royce Mathew claims that Disney infringed on a story that Mathew had written, and fraudulently procured a settlement from him when a previous lawsuit was filed.

In addition…

“She’s a very, very young elf,” Lilly said. “She’s only 600 years old, unlike Legolas (Orlando Bloom’s character), who’s like, 1,900 years old and Thranduil who’s about 3,000 years old. She doesn’t have quite the wisdom and pose that those two boys do; she’s a little more… gritty. A little more spontanteous, passionate perhaps.”

Lilly added that “to play this character I need to have a certain amount of grace. But I’m also supposed to be an absolutely ruthless, deadly killer.”

Tauriel does not appear in the original book by J.R.R. Tolkien and was created by Jackson. Her name means,…

Avengers 2 will not be able to use Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s code names, it has been claimed.

Only 20th Century Fox, which controls the X-Men rights, will be able to use the characters’ superhero titles, while Marvel can use the names Wanda and Pietro, according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit.

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Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, the children of Magneto, first debuted in X-Men but have been important members of the Avengers over the years.

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It has also been claimed that Avengers 2 will not be able to refer to the twins as mutants.

Sigh. Can’t we all just…

The lady seated to my immediate right (very close quarters on bench seating) was fairly insistent about using her phone. I asked her to turn it off. She answered: “So don’t look.” I asked her whether I had missed something during the very pointed announcements to please turn off your phones, perhaps a special exemption granted for her. She suggested that I should mind my own business.

So I minded my own business by utilizing my famously feline agility to deftly snatch the phone out of her hand and toss it across the room, where it would do no more damage. She slapped me and stormed away…

It appears that Apple has begun quietly phasing out its trailer download options from thetrailers.apple.com website, effectively eliminating 1080p trailer availability.

Previously, the site gave users the ability to stream trailers in 480p or 720p, along with providing download options for 480p, 720p, and 1080p. Trailers uploaded to the site after an approximate date of May 22 no longer have any download options and can only be streamed in-browser at 480p or 720p.

I have confirmed this as well. It is slightly annoying because I used to download the big 1080p trailers that I especially…

The core idea is that CBS’ and Paramount’s differing viewpoints on the franchise might have frustrated Abrams to a point where, when Star Wars became available, he decided to shift his allegiance and master plan over to the dark side at Disney.

Basically it comes down to this: since CBS owns the rights to the all the Star Trek TV shows, it owns the rights to the characters. In order to make a Star Trek movie, Paramount must license the characters from CBS. (CBS and Paramount were once both owned by Viacom, but CBS broke off in 2006.) At the same time, CBS can do whatever it wants with…

The crux of the negotiations argument is that Robert Downey Jr. is their flagship star, and he’s still comparatively under-compensated (though he was paid $50 million for “The Avengers,” the four films he has appeared in for Marvel have grossed $3.4 billion dollars together). This will be a big sticking point for Marvel who clearly thinks they are probably paying him enough. Anyhow, when asked about the future films starring Tony Stark, Kevin Feige says Marvel can live on without Robert Downey Jr.

“I believe there will be a fourth ‘Iron Man’ and a fifth, sixth and a 10^th and a 20^th,” he…