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There is now no roleplaying convention running in Sydney this Easter. According to the email I received from an organiser, Necronomicon cannot run as the venue, Newtown High School, is unavailable.

Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 08:51:22 +1000
From: “Dion Dowling” <dion .dowling [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Necronomicon 2007

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Necronomicon will not be happening this Easter 2007 weekend. The venue, Newtown High School of Performing Arts, has just changed its mind on hiring the venue to us - after doing so regularly for over 15 years. A change of administration and a change of mind that is not helpful to us. When we learnt of this earlier this week, we spent days trying to find a similar venue in the inner west on short notice.

We have found none. So regretfully, we must cancel the convention for Easter.

However, we are attempting to find a venue for the June Long Weekend. If we can find a suitable venue, we will host Necronomicon on that weekend for this year only, and we should have the venue booked for Easter next year.

We regret this has happened. None of us involved in the convention are happy with this development. The hard work that goes into a convention over many months before hand now seems wasted. But it won’t be. We will strive to present Necronomicon this year as best we can. And you can be certain that Necronomicon will return Easter 2008.

I would be interested to hear how this came about. I wonder when they decided to confirm the school booking?

And if Shadow Games were planning on moving Necro to the June long weekend, won’t there be a conflict. I thought Sutekh was organising another convention, InConceivable, on that weekend.

Its a pity “Sydney’s Premier Roleplaying Event” doesn’t appear more organised.

Other discussions on the topic:

• Necronomicon cancelled (Sutekh forum)

I noticed an article in the Sydney Morning Herald[1] suggesting that Apple iTunes will finally have downloadable TV shows in Australia. Apple is playing it down as just rumours, but iTunes 7.1 does add the ability to restrict downloaded shows by Australian ratings. The suggestion is that it has managed to do a deal with channel Nine.

So it looks like legal downloading of TV shows may be on the horizon. But people still have reason to continue illegal downloads, or so the story goes.

Research by Alex Malik suggests that the delay in TV shows being broadcast in Australian causes people to become pirates[2]. The study shows that the average delay has increased from 7.6 to 16.7 months in the past 2 years. With only a handful of shows being shown locally in a timely manner, many people are resorting to downloading from the Internet.

Meanwhile he Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has decided to open its archives and make them available online[3]. Its current offering can be found here [4].

References

1. iTunes primed for local TV downloads (SMH, 7 March 2007)
2. TV program delays ‘turning viewers into pirates’ (SMH, 21 Feb 2007)
3. Up next, ABC prepares to unlock archives (The Age, 7 Feb 2007)
4. Video on Demand (VOD) - Home