Barry Willis

Jack Valenti has officially announced the end of his tenure as president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The silver-haired 82-year-old pitchman carved his niche in entertainment industry history as the originator of the movie rating system. He also fought hard against the VCR, a device he likened to "the Boston Strangler." In recent years, Valenti concentrated on a campaign against piracy—not only the wholesale industrial variety, but against small scale copying by movie fans for personal use, an effort that has not endeared him to the civil libertarian element among home entertainment enthusiasts.

The next wave of consolidation in the broadcasting industry has been dealt an indefinite setback by a US appeals court.

Many pundits claim that home entertainment is the next great frontier for computer technology. That's exactly where Intel Corporation is headed.

The Consumer Electronics Association (<A HREF="http://www.ce.org">CEA</A>) will back a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plan that could speed up the transition to a nationwide all-digital TV systems, according to a June 1 report from <I>Broadcast & Cable</I>.