Most video codecs are proprietary, but Theora is an open-source project for compressing video for web. While it's still only in alpha release (no executable version yet (you must compile your own) it does have a lot of promise for the future of web video.
Marginal Revolution has a great explanation of what's hurting Hollywood's bottom line--and it isn't piracy. It's the success of DVDs, better TVs and how much it's now costing to make the increasingly throw-away formula movies Hollywood serves up.
Paul Arthur's new book collects his essays on avant-garde film from the past thirty years into a single volume. This book is a much needed survey of American work since 1965 that was written at the time of the events being discussed, rather than a historicizing volume written from a singular contemporary viewpoint.
