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All those dire predictions about Canada shutting down Hollywood look like they may come to pass after all, but not because of runaway production. An Ottawa-based company called Research In Motion, which provides North American BlackBerry email service, is in a messy patent dispute. Result: all U.S. BlackBerry service is on the verge of a court-ordered shutdown.

U.S. District Judge James Spencer rejected the company's request to delay the case and refused to enforce a disputed $450-million settlement with patent-holder NTP Inc. [...]


Spencer said he would request briefs and set a hearing date to deal with NTP's request for damages against Research in Motion and an injunction that would end U.S. sales of the BlackBerry and shut its service.

The effect a BlackBerry blackout would have on Hollywood is staggering, beyond even the scope of our wildest apocalyptic fantasies. A dark image dominates the mind: Having lost the ability to tune the world out while communicating through the rapid articulation of thumbs on tiny keypads, industry types will begin what evolutionary scientists refer to as a "hyperaccelerated degeneration." We give Endeavor three weeks before it is consumed from within by an army of cannibalistic and quadruped ex-agents.