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It was a good week for…  HBO. Its latest epic made for TV saga, The Pacific, has become the fastest selling TV box set of the year, selling more than 130,000 in its first week…

It was a bad week for… the Digital Economy Act, which is in limbo at the same time as PM David Cameron announced a look into copyright issues…

The government has ordered a review of the intellectual property laws to "make them fit for the Internet age" according to prime minister David Cameron. But while the government's apparent reason for the review – a conversation with Google chief Eric Schmidt – may not seem entirely valid, the Alliance Against IP Theft has welcomed the move, possibly, it seems, in the hope that it will help educate the new coalition government about the importance of IP. The review will look at how IP can help and hinder businesses, the cost of enforcing IP rights and the difference between what the US and UK deem as fair use. Alliance chair Lavinia Carey said: "We look forward to the Government’s review of IP because when they look into it they will realise just how important IP is in ensuring the success of British business, innovation and culture and the millions of UK jobs that depend on IP." We would recommend that you have a look at this article, looking at Cameron, Google and IP, from The Guardian, we liked it.  The review, meanwhile, will report in April.

Meanwhile, there's been a flurry of activity in courts this week, with more set for this Friday, as ISPs such as BT and TalkTalk persuaded a judge to call for a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act. The controversial act came onto the statute books this summer after a swift passage through parliament, but the ISPs object to what it describes as "unenforcable" elements requiring them to hand over details of customers who illegally download content and said the act wasn't scrutinised properly and will infringe the basic rights and freedoms of Internet users. The review could effectively mean the act is in limbo until the review takes place in February 2011. The Motion Picture Association said that their objections are based more around the ISPs business and financial interests. MPA md Chris Marcich said: "The pursuit of this claim by BT [and] TalkTalk appears to be an attempt to avoid or delay playing their rightful part in tackling online piracy, and instead to continue maximising profit by continuing to make money from broadband traffic generated in part by the downloading of illegal content taken from rights holders without permission."

Last on this front this week, and Internet safety charity Childnet International has launched a new guide to safe and legal downloading for films, TV and music. The guide, entitled Music, Film, TV And The Internet, is aimed at parents, teachers and kids themselves. It outlines the legal ramifications of illegally downloading, as well as safety and security problems, such as viruses, and is also aimed at stimulating debate as to how illegal file-sharing and downloading can cost the industry and artists. Produced in conjunction with the Industry Trust, it also points kids in the direction of legitimate sites. And the guide, which can be downloaded from the charity's site, and is being distributed through schools, couldn't come at a better time, as a new survey showed that almost 40 per cent of mums couldn't tell the difference between a legal and illegal site. The poll, among mums on netmums, showed that almost 30 per cent didn't know where to find legal films on the web, and a whopping 60 per cent didn't even know what the term "file-sharing" meant. Childnet International's Lucinda Fell said: "We hope the guide will help parents and teachers to introduce the concept of responsible digital citizenship - the idea of behaving as safely and responsibly in cyberspace as you would offline. This is at the heart of what Childnet does. We often hear from parents that while they are concerned about downloading and streaming, they are also confused about what can and can't be done safely and legally. The new guide aims to give parents and teachers practical information to equip them in talking to children and young people about these issues."

Anyone trying to get hold of staff at 2 entertain on Monday lunchtime might have struggled, as half of them were a stone's throw from their offices, down at HMV's 150 Oxford Street store, for a PA and signing by the new Doctor Who, Matt Smith, and his assistant Amy Pond, aka Karen Gillan. It seems as if half of London had the same idea too – it was one of the busiest signings we've ever witnessed, and certainly one of the most showbizzy - there were scores of paparazzi lined up to take their pictures (more than 20 alone), as well as 300 plus fans queuing up to get the new DVD or Blu-ray of the fifth season of the next generation of the Timelord's adventures signed by the pair. Some had been lining up in the miserable weather since lunchtime on Sunday – 2e staff were on hand first thing on Monday morning along with a pair of Cybermen, to patrol the queue. 2 e's Brian Hill said: "The launch of the Doctor Who boxset on Monday was a spectacular event all-round – for the fans, for the press, for the team here at 2e and for the Oxford Street team at HMV who were, as ever, fantastic at pulling together a slick operation. Engaging fans in-store is increasingly a fundamental part of the sales, marketing and PR teams’ focus when we launch a big title and it’s not easy to pull off. Alongside a sterling team effort behind-the-scenes, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan were true stars for us from their crack-of-dawn wake-up call for Daybreak through scores of press interviews, being followed by the paparazzi and delighting hundreds of fans by signing copies of the DVD. This is the first of a series of in-store signing events we have coming up this Q4 – if Monday is anything to go by, we’re set for a frenetic but very successful few weeks."

The signing was all part of a day's worth of Doctor Who-related activity which saw Smith and Gillan appearing on numerous radio and TV shows, turning up on, among others, Daybreak, Radio 1 and Radio 2, Newsround, Heatworld (blogging from the event) and more. It was some impressive launch PR and helped the series off to day one sales of almost 10,000 units.

The release date for The Expendables is fast approaching, and Lionsgate this week hosted a visit by one of its big names, action hero Dolph Lundgren. The star carried out a number of interviews for online and offline media for a high profile publicity campaign to further highlight the December 13 release. This included a clay-pigeon shoot with Chris Kamara for Sky's Soccer AM and a morning at LA Fitness with whom Lionsgate and Dolph are working to promote their new, aptly-named Guns workout, in association with The Expendables. This was followed by a live Empire webchat and, to round things off, an exclusive evening with Dolph Lundgren at the London Film Museum, with Film 2010 with Empire's Chris Hewitt asking the questions. 

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Keep an eye out for Misfits, Channel 4's drama series which made a high profile return to our television screens this week. The programme won plaudits and crucially ratings for its first series and the C4 marketing machine has moved into overdrive, on air, outdoor, online and in the press to plug the second series. All of which means things are shaping up nicely for 4DVD's release of the second series, scheduled for December 27. The first series has sold consistently well, while viewing figures are expected to rise beyond the 1 million plus the series, which follows the adventures of a group of ASBO-types who are bestowed with super powers. 4DVD's Karla Berry said: "Misfits has developed into an established brand in a similar way to Inbetweeners; launching on E4 originally, and then transferring to a wider C4 audience and beyond through word-of-mouth, critical acclaim and celebrity endorsement. The second series is a much bigger opportunity and we’ll be launching the DVD along with a series 1 and 2 box set right after the E4 broadcast." More on the marketing next week.

We couldn't help but notice Kinder Bueno's new outdoor advertising campaign which has broken, well, everywhere over the past week (we strolled past one on the London Underground a few days back) that sees the chocolate company tying in with Warner's imminent DVD and Blu-ray bow for S*x And The City 2 (our asterisk, to avoid the more enthusiastic firewalls). The promotion, backed by more than £1.2 million in outdoor advertising with supporting PR and online advertising. The on-pack promotion offers consumers the chance to win a girls' night out in London. All the elements, of course, feature the November 29 release date… It's part of a campaign for the film that includes further promotional activity with Coty (for Sarah Jessica Parker's own fragrance), O2 and Special K, all which will feature the film's logo. There is also a tie in with Swarovski and Skyy Vodka, which will see a launch event auctioning off a special one-off crystal-encrusted Blu-ray case for UNICEF.  

After inking some interesting deals at AFM, not least in picking up the Ray Winstone starrer Tracker, as well as the Aussie horror Primal, the ambitious independent Kaleidoscope has appointed Adam Sergeant to the newly-created role of marketing director. Sergeant has worked for other indies such as Showbox and Contender (now eOne) and, most recently, operating his own marketing consultancy Clarity One. While his company worked for Kaleidoscope, Sergeant will now work solely for the indie, on both its UK operations and its new internationally-focused sister company Kaleidoscope Film Distribution. Kaleidoscope ceo Spencer Pollard said: "We are delighted that Adam has agreed to join us full time and be responsible for how we bring titles to market. We have had a good working relationship for more than 18 months and he was a natural choice when looking to expand the business and create the role. Sergeant said: "I am very pleased to be joining Kaleidoscope at this exciting time. With a healthy and diverse slate ahead of us, the next few months will no doubt prove challenging and fun in equal measure. I'm very much looking forward to joining the team and making a positive contribution to the business."

Also on the recruitment side, Showbox Media Group has made two major appointments to its ever-growing roster of staff. It has appointed Alastair Burge, formerly at EUK, as head of campaign and Internet sales.  Burge, who oversaw Woolworths campaign and Worth It! branded ranges, was most recently at etailer Director Offers UK. Showbox sales director Paul Slader said: "Due to the continuing growth of Showbox, the success of our UK market leading Cine Asia brand and our increasing third party studio client base, I am very pleased to welcome Alastair Burge to our team. He bring a wealth of experience and expertise in campaign and Internet sales and will enable us to provide an even better service and focus to our valued customer base." The company has also brought its PR operations in-house, bringing in Louise Rivers to head up its new division. Within days of her appointment, Rivers was off to China, to help deliver an exclusive interview with Jackie Chan which appears in this month's Empire, to mark the release of Cine Asia's Little Big Soldier. Showbox chairman David Hodgins said: "We are very excited to have Louise on board. Within days of joining us she has proved to be a very valuable team member." We mentioned AFM earlier, and we've just heard back from Arrow Films, which, with its new acquisitions executive Tom Stewart now firmly ensconced at the company, has been busy over at the film market, signing a number of titles for its 2011 slate. Among those acquired for UK release are a 3D version of Battle Royale, Vampire Warriors ("non-stop Kung Fu action adventure", and if it's half as good as Mr Vampire, we'll be happy); war title The Wereth Eleven, which looks at one of the second world war's least known atrocities; a brace of WWII sequels, Burnt By The Sun 2 and 3; actioner Meteor Storm (which features the poor old Golden Gate Bridge in peril once again, according to the artwork); post-apocalyptic Sean Bean starrer The Lost Future; epic tale Quiet Flows The Don, some two decades in the making; Territories, from the producers of The Horde, one of our favourite films of 2010; and Dolph Lundgren starrer In The Name Of the King 2. Stewart said: "Here at Arrow we're really excited about the plans ahead for 2011, the acquisitions from the AFM represent a strong commercial diverse lineup covering many genres."

We'll end our news section with a figures… The Digital Entertainment Group has unveiled Q3 figures for Blu-ray sales that highlight a doubling of sales year-on-year. Blu-ray sales for the year now total €445 million (£377 million); with DVD down by 4.3 per cent, total sales across the two formats in Europe are now worth almost £3.4 billion. DEGE chairman and svp at Warner for EMEA Yves Caillaud said: " During the last quarter of the year, we expect to see sales continue to gain momentum as the latest Blu‐ray
blockbusters make it onto everyone’s Christmas lists. It is also important to note that today’s figures do not reflect the rapidly growing  digital distribution sector, which would further underscore the strength in consumer spending in the European home entertainment sector.      

And one last thing… This week's big game release Call Of Duty: Black Ops is now claiming to be the biggest ever entertainment launch, after making some $360 million in its first day on sale in the US and UK. It beat its predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, after shifting some 5.6 million units in its first 24 hours… Publisher Activision said it was on track to beat last year's five day worldwide sales record of $550 million.