Whether or not it wins an Oscar, the movie adaptation of John Le Carre's 1974 novel "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" demonstrates the power of the classic spy story about the struggle of a fallen intelligence officer to uncover a high-level mole.

The obstacle to finding the mole is the intelligence service itself, which attempts to rid itself of the mole hunter. It doesn't want to admit that it has been gulled—a story that's all too rooted in reality.

Consider, for example, the findings of an internal CIA investigation in 1995. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the CIA's inspector general examined how in the late 1980s and early 1990s the CIA had incorporated Russian disinformation into its own reporting.

He discovered that over those years the KGB had dispatched at least a half-...

As I predicted in TheWrap, Netflix has hit a brick wall with its expiring contract with John Malone’s Starz: On Sept. 2, Starz announced it would not renew it.  

Through the deal, Netflix had sub-licensed electronic transmission rights of Disney and Sony that Starz had itself licensed in its output deals for its pay-TV channel. This deal allowed Netflix to stream a large number of newer movies to its subscribers.  

Netflix got these sub-rights for the bargain-basement price of $30 million per year, because in 2008 when Starz made the deal, streaming was a new technology of such little monetary value...

Since Hollywood is now run by former television executives, it is hardly surprising that the studios are about to carve out for themselves a new video-on-demand window from what had been the exclusive realm of the movie theaters.

Called “Home Premiere,” and costing $30 a movie, beginning Thursday it will beam into couch potatoes’ homes a movie in high-definition just eight weeks after it opens in the multiplexes. This will allow the home audience to see a movie in the comfort of their home months before it is available in the video stores, vending machines or at Netflix.

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In the past three years, Netflix has been merrily speeding ahead on the streaming highway.

It has induced a large portion of its 20 million mail-in subscribers to watch movies that are electronically transmitted, or “streamed,” to their television sets, computers, or mobile gadget. Perhaps 5 million or more of its monthly subscribers are now using the streaming service instead of getting their DVDs in the mail.

In the process, Netflix saves hugely in its postage and handling charges.    

While Netflix’s conversion of a mass audience to a geek technology in such a short time period is no doubt a phenomenal achievement, it is now heading straight toward a brick wall. Its crucial 3-year licensing contracts for the electronic transmission of both movies and TV programs will begin expiring in just 7 months. When Netflix had made...