FBI Raids SAG Member’s Home for Alleged Uploads

Last week, the FBI raided the home of Screen Actor’s Guild member Wes Desoto.  He is believed to be the culprit responsible for uploading several Hollywood titles to the file sharing site, The Pirate Bay.  “The King’s Speech,” “Black Swan,” “127 Hours” and “The Fighter” were just several of the films believed to be uploaded to the site in January.

FBI agents were tipped that it was a member of SAG due to the film’s high quality, and the ‘watermarks’ that appear on the films.  In February, investigators took aim at Pirate Bay member mf34inc; whom they believe is affiliated with an online group called TiMPE.  They discovered the user had posted the following, to other members on the site: ‘SAG now sends out iTunes download codes for screens,’ before adding, ‘I’m a SAG member and thought I’d share these.’

According to the affidavit, Deluxe Webwatch (a Paramount Pictures contractor) was monitoring user mf34inc as they began uploading another film “Rabbit Hole.” Here they were able to track the user’s unique I.P. address.  After obtaining a subpoena, they approached Time Warner Cable and got the user’s Los Angeles address.

DeSoto, who recently played a small role in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, said in a telephone interview with WIRED: “I’m nobody in the online file sharing world. This investigation is excessive and a waste of tax dollars.”

So, is he guilty or just preparing for another role?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

via WIRED

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?

This is a guest post by Anthony Meindl

You are!

Duh.

The problem is that most of us don’t see ourselves that way. You see yourself through the dirty mirror of the left-brain’s MADDENING MIND MATRIX.

That is, when life gives us a big fat “No!” – which it will invariably do if you’re out in the world pursuing your dreams – we personalize the “No” in a way that triggers our left-brain’s default neural groove.

Hearing a “No” isn’t really that big a deal. But when we associate that “No” with incorrect interpretations in our left hemisphere (“I’m talentless.” “It’s never going to happen for me.” “I suck.”) we immediately let the “No” defeat us.

We stop moving forward. We move back to Baltimore. We reach for that Ben & Jerry’s CHUBBY HUBBY.

Or we personalize the defeats by beating ourselves up for the way we look or who we are — thinking that if we were someone else it would just be easier.

Well, first of all, it wouldn’t. (Unless maybe you’re BRAD PITT.)  And actually, he’s got his shit too. Everyone does!

So all we need to do is a bit of radical re-working of our brain’s neural wiring. It’s like Frankenstein’s monster. You have to start re-booting your neural groove so you don’t let defeats defeat you.

Why are we wired to the lies of our left-brain and not the truths of our hearts?
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SAG National Board of Directors Unanimously Establishes Merger Task Force

Guild Task Force to work directly with AFTRA counterparts to develop formal merger plan for approval by National Boards in January 2012.

Los Angeles, (April 30, 2011) – The Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors today unanimously approved the creation of a Merger Task Force to work with their AFTRA counterparts in developing a formal plan to unite SAG and AFTRA members in one union.

The Board’s resolution instructed the newly-formed Merger Task Force “to meet with representatives of AFTRA as soon as practicable, but no later than June 2011, to initiate the development of a plan to create a successor union formed from the best elements of both SAG and AFTRA.”  The full text of the resolution appears below.

Led by Screen Actors Guild National President Ken Howard, the Merger Task Force members were selected from among those who served on the Guild’s SAG-AFTRA Relations Task Force.

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