Christian Sommer

The famous F-Words: Father, Film, Flights, Food, Football (FC @S04), Freedom, Fun, Functionary. Foresicht: All views my own. 🇪🇺🇩🇪 🎗️

[Filipp Piatov @fpiatov]

Morgen erscheint eine hoch spannende Folge bei @ronzheimer. BVB-Präsident Aki Watzke spricht über seinen Jugendfreund, Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz. Ein faszinierendes und erstaunlich offenes Gespr��ch über den jungen Merz und wie eine Kanzlerschaft die Freundschaft verändert.

[Bloomberg @business]

President Donald Trump’s top trade official criticized a German draft law that would force US streaming services to invest in the country’s film sector, calling the measures discriminatory and a violation of the EU’s trade deal https://t.co/XvK7SlJMdu

[Dr. Dr. Rainer Zitelmann @RZitelmann]

Weimer war früher mal Marktwirtschaftler. Die erste Maßnahme, die er beschließt, nämlich Streamingdienste zu zwingen, in deutsche Filme zu investieren, ist purer Sozialismus. Die GRÜNEN jubeln.
STATT "LINKS IST VORBEI" heißt es "LINKS LEGT JETZT ERST RICHTIG LOS"

https://t.co/I7WccTU0Ga

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

via @faznet: https://t.co/SHAkI8W9Ns

[BKM Kultur & Medien @BundesKultur]

Investitionsverpflichtung für Streamer und Sender kommt. Gleichzeitig steht nun der Filmförderbooster in Höhe von 250 Millionen pro Jahr zur Verfügung. Staatsminister Weimer: „Zünden neue Stufe im internationalen Standortwettbewerb.“ Mehr dazu: https://t.co/JtjXwUZtla

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

In Deutschland bei @ZDF bzw @ARTEde abrufbar:

https://t.co/4zCTeeGPwo

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Great news, esp if more people watch it now. I’ve posted about "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" several times after meeting Pavel Talankin, and it’s a remarkable document from the inside of how Putin is brainwashing Russia into a state built only for perpetual war, including children.

[Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment @ACE_antipiracy]

The USTR’s 2025 Notorious Markets List once again exposes the illicit platforms and infrastructure driving global piracy.

More than 15 piracy operations identified by the Motion Picture Association were included in this year’s report, alongside recognition of ACE’s landmark takedown of Streameast,  once the world’s largest live sports piracy ring.

The report also underscores the growing threat of live sports piracy. With the global sports broadcast market valued at $62.6 billion and piracy draining up to $28 billion annually, the stakes for rights holders, leagues, and the broader sports ecosystem are enormous.

ACE continues to expand partnerships with broadcasters, sports leagues, technology platforms, and international law enforcement to dismantle these criminal networks and protect the creative marketplace.

https://t.co/MPX3s46ltx

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

@HasnainKazim Flitzpiepe

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

Beautiful

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

Iran built the most comprehensive civilian surveillance network in the Middle East. Cameras on every street. Facial recognition at universities. License plate readers that automatically fined women for removing their hijab in their own cars. A mobile app called Nazer that let citizens report uncovered women. Drones at beaches. The infrastructure that killed Mahsa Amini in September 2022 and crushed the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising that followed.

Israel hacked nearly all of it.

According to the Financial Times, citing two people familiar with the matter, nearly all of Tehran’s traffic cameras had been compromised for years. The footage was encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel. One camera near Pasteur Street proved especially valuable. It was angled in such a way that Israeli analysts could see where members of Khamenei’s security detail parked their personal cars. Through that single camera angle, Israeli intelligence built files on the bodyguards’ home addresses, work schedules, commuting routes, and which senior officials they were assigned to protect.

Unit 8200 used algorithms to process billions of data points into what intelligence officers call a “pattern of life.” A person familiar with the process described it as “an assembly line with a single product: targets.”

“We knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem,” an Israeli intelligence official told the Financial Times. “And when you know a place as well as you know the street you grew up on, you notice a single thing that’s out of place.”

On February 28, when intelligence confirmed Khamenei would attend a morning meeting at his compound near Pasteur Street, the operation entered its final phase. Israel disrupted approximately 12 cellular antennas in the area, causing phones to appear “busy” when dialed. Khamenei’s security detail could not receive warnings. Israeli aircraft fired 30 precision munitions. The strike was carried out in daylight for tactical surprise.

Former Mossad official Sima Shine told the Financial Times that Israel’s strategic focus on Iran dates to a 2001 directive from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Twenty-five years of patient intelligence collection culminated in a single Saturday morning.

Here is the part that should stay with you.

The cameras Israel hacked were not military installations. They were the regime’s domestic surveillance apparatus. The same cameras that tracked women who removed their hijab. The same system that sent automated text messages to women in Isfahan accusing them of “improper veiling.” The same infrastructure the Guidance Patrol used to build digital dossiers on Iranian women and girls for the crime of showing their hair.

Israel turned the tools of the morality police into the tools of the regime’s destruction.

There is a viral claim that after the assassination, Mossad wiped the morality police’s databases on Iranian women. No Tier 1, 2, or 3 source confirms this. It traces to a single unverified social media post. I will not present it as fact.

But the verified reality is extraordinary enough. The regime built a surveillance state to control its own women. A foreign intelligence service co-opted that state to kill the man who ordered it built. The cameras that watched women became the cameras that watched Khamenei die.

That is poetic justice written in code.

https://t.co/ULBgEzZ3A8

[OSINTtechnical @Osinttechnical]

Footage of an Iranian Shahed attack drone hitting an apartment building in Bahrain tonight, as seen from the building.

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

@ACE_antipiracy Thank you and congratulations, @thebruess ⚖️🏛️

[Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment @ACE_antipiracy]

Cam-ripping is a crime — and a German court has now held an individual accountable for capturing films in theaters and pushing them into the illegal marketplace, delivering a decisive strike at content theft at its source.

The case underscores the critical role of law enforcement and justice systems in protecting the creative marketplace and the millions of jobs it supports.

“We commend German law enforcement and prosecutors for their decisive action against piracy at its source,” said Larissa Knapp, EVP & Chief Content Protection Officer, Motion Picture Association. “This sentence sends a clear message: unauthorized copying and distribution of films in theatrical release is a serious criminal offense.”

Read more: https://t.co/DwLC5QwSHb

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

@ILMVFX 👏

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

@ACE_antipiracy 👏

[Constantin Schreiber @ConstSchreiber]

Aus gegebenem Anlass. Wenn auf der Berlinale eine derartig dämlich Hassrede gehalten wird, dann kann man das nicht unwidersprochen stehen lassen. Nein, das ist keine andere Perspektive. Was Abdallah Alkhatib da erzählt hat ist gefährlicher Unfug.

[Felix Dachsel @xileffff]

Guter Mann

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

@gitta_connemann Ehrenmann

[Christian Sommer @chsommer]

@welt 👏🙏@schneidercar

[Gitta Connemann @gitta_connemann]

Haltung macht den Unterschied. Vielen Dank für die Courage, lieber Carsten Schneider.

[Variety @Variety]

Motion Picture Association Pushes ByteDance to Curb Seedance 2.0 AI Infringement https://t.co/n9WzTjqJuW

[US-Botschaft Berlin @usbotschaft]

On February 17, Chargé Meltzer welcomed representatives from the film and streaming industry, as well as representatives from German ministries to a roundtable discussion and a reception on the occasion of the Berlinale.  With the U.S. and German governments likeminded on the need to reduce regulatory burdens on business, the ground is fertile for cooperation. The film and streaming industry can thrive on both sides of the Atlantic if a pro-market regulatory environment is adopted.