Why Hollywood is in a surly mood today

It looks like the end of free movie DVDs and videos for the thousands who vote on the Oscars, and assorted Hollywood hangers on. With Sony signing on last night, all the major studios have agreed to stop sending "screeners" as part of an anti-piracy effort launched by Jack Valenti's MPAA. The Variety story by Cathy Dunkley details how divisive the policy is within the studios, pitting one exec against another, and how independents see it as a tactic to shut them out of Oscars. For most everyone on the screener list who now will have to attend actual screenings to see Oscar-nominated films, this unnamed insider quoted in Variety probably sums up the reaction:

"It's a sad day in Mudville."