In the “what can go wrong” department, indieWIRE reports about the end of Sundance’s relationship with Mediastile, Inc., the aggregator that was placing the festival’s licensed digital content on services such as iTunes, Netflix, and XBox LIVE.  Mediastile has apparently been neglecting to pay any royalties for the content they’ve sold, which is the reason for Sundance’s dissolution of the partnership.  As of now, it doesn’t look like filmmakers whose films were licensed through Mediastile will have much recourse, short of legal action (and unless they can take a class action, it is probably not worth it for most).

If there is a lesson it may simply be that it’s a good idea to do these deals directly. But it also seems quite likely that a lot of VC-funded enterprises in the digital world will not have a great deal of longevity– and they rarely pay advances– so if you don’t get paid at your first scheduled date, or at least receive an accounting explaining why you aren’t owed anything, you might want to consider all the other fish in the sea…

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