Not too long ago, a site claiming to know what you have downloaded via torrent showed up on the scene. The site, YouHaveDownloaded.com, aims to call attention to the fact that torrenting, as it stands right now, is not a very private activity. You can go there right now to see if they have anything on you. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the folks at TorrentFreak decided to use the service to see if the big, anti-piracy companies live up to their own standards. Spoilers: They don’t.

ABC Studios has sold an hour-long police procedural script to FOX based on The Punisher. If you’re wondering how that is possible, ABC Studios is owned by Disney, and Disney owns Marvel. Former Chicago police officer Ed Bernero, who had done previous work on Third Watch and Criminal Minds, will executively produce the series. For Punisher fans hoping this never comes to fruition, I’m sorry to say, FOX has already committed to shooting a pilot, so at the very least, there will be one episode floating around at some point.

The FOX series will focus on NYPD detective Frank Castle, whose alter ego is a vigilante seeking justice for people who slipped through the justice cracks. Punisher will obviously be wary of that description, as the sentence makes it sound like Frank will be on the force by day and murdering criminals by night, rather than not on the force at all and living in a sewer. English is a funny language, though, so we can only hope that the NYPD detective bit is referring to Frank’s past, not his present.

Coming mere days after Apple’s longtime CEO Steve Jobs stepped down comes this note that the company will be halting TV-show rentals through its popular iTunes media service. Citing a lack of interest in the rental model, the company says it will continue to offer television programs for purchase and download. Apple says that customers have overwhelmingly demonstrated a preference toward downloading programs, and that the company will focus on that instead.

The demise of TV rentals might not just be a result of low customer interest, but also resistance from the studios that create the content. CNet points out that only FOX and Disney ABC were involved in the rental program, and with only limited content at the typical iTunes 99-cent price point. Apple’s announcement has also revived rumors of a subscription offering, or possibly a Netflix-style streaming service in the works. However, it’s worth noting that if studios weren’t responsive about a rental service, they almost certainly won’t want to have to contend with another streaming service.

As always, we’ll have to wait and see how this develops.

(via CNet)

Fox has given the greenlight for a reboot of Carl Sagan’s iconic TV series Cosmos, to be hosted by famous and well-respected astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The show will be produced by none other than Seth MacFarlane. Yes, Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy will be the mind behind a 13-part docu-series to air in primetime as a successor to Sagan’s original Emmy and Peabody Award winning series.

For Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, MacFarlane will be working with Sagan’s original collaborators from the Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series that ran on PBS in 1980. These collaborators include Sagan’s widow writer and producer Ann Druyan, and astrophysicist Steven Soter. The National Geographic Channel will co-produce Cosmos and will air a same-night encore of the episodes after they air on Fox. The program is expected to air in 2013, which is around the same time that Fox plans to launch MacFarlane’s take on the Hanna-Barbera classic, The Flintstones.

Yet another large-scale personal information heist came to light today with news that the information of entrants to Simon Cowell’s star-seeking program, X-Factor, were stolen. About 250,000 U.S. residents are expected to be affected by the attack, which is currently under investigation by the FBI.

Thankfully for that quater-million people, the stolen information contained no financial or password information. However, the records could have include an entrant’s name, date of birth, gender, zip code, phone number, and email address. Identity theft is a risk, but the FOX network, which carries X-Factor in the U.S., is far more concerned that the scammers could pose as FOX officials and use the information to dupe contestants into giving out valuable personal information. So, to those that recently took a stab at fame, be extra wary of suspicious emails.

Read on after the break to see the text of an email FOX has sent out to those affected by this security breach.

Raoul Martinez, an anchor at Fox’s local news affiliate in San Diego, managed to trick his colleague Shally Zomorodi into licking an iPad on the air on April Fools’ Day. It turns out that apps that let you taste the food and drink displayed on the screen don’t actually exist, or at least they won’t until the iPad 7 HD.

(via BGR)

There’s so much madness in this local Fox affiliate’s report on Internet trolls, I don’t even know where to begin. The knowing inclusion of trollface and the canonical green troll icon? The dramatic close-ups of YouTube comments? The anecdote about a man who was threatened and subject to humiliating Photoshops by a “professional troll” hired by his enemy?  The very presence of Boxxy? Whoever did the video editing on this deserves an Nobel Prize.

(via Reddit)

Avatar director and pioneering submariner James Cameron has announced that he has signed a deal with Fox to direct both Avatar 2 and Avatar 3. The films are slated for release in December 2014 and December 2015, respectively.

Cameron’s statement:

It is a rare and remarkable opportunity when a filmmaker gets to build a fantasy world, and watch it grow, with the resources and partnership of a global media company. AVATAR was conceived as an epic work of fantasy – a world that audiences could visit, across all media platforms, and this moment marks the launch of the next phase of that world. With two new films on the drawing boards, my company and I are embarking on an epic journey with our partners at Twentieth Century Fox. Our goal is to meet and exceed the global audience’s expectations for the richness of AVATAR’s visual world and the power of the storytelling. In the second and third films, which will be self contained stories that also fulfill a greater story arc, we will not back off the throttle of AVATAR’s visual and emotional horsepower, and will continue to explore its themes and characters, which touched the hearts of audiences in all cultures around the world. I’m looking forward to returning to Pandora, a world where our imaginations can run wild.

No new word on plot or shooting details beyond what we’ve already heard.

(THR via Bleeding Cool)

International viewers rejoice! A lot of people were upset yesterday when Banksy’s dark, scathing Simpsons intro was pulled from YouTube, forcing viewers to watch it on the U.S. only-Hulu. While Fox has been widely blamed for this takedown and may or may not have had a hand in it, it’s possible that this was one of YouTube’s infamous automated video takedowns. In any event, the video is back up on YouTube now, where Canadians and The Simpsons‘ own South Korean animators (who showrunner Al Jean insists aren’t exploited like the animators in Banksy’s video) will be free to watch it.

>>>Watch the video.

(h/t Marc D. Schiller via Peter Kafka)

According to The LA Times, Blockbuster and its biggest debtors have already discussed their plans to declare bankruptcy by mid-September with Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Disney and Warner Bros.

Blockbuster has lost a total of $1.1 billion since the beginning of 2008 and has been severely hamstrung in efforts to grow its business due to interest payments on $920 million in debt. Earlier this month the company announced that most of its debt holders had agreed to a forbearance on interest payments until Sept. 30, during which time it would attempt a recapitalization.

Blockbuster’s bankruptcy looks like it’s going to be something of a tangled mess of retail vs. Hollywood vs. digital connections.