Famous director Michael Moore released his latest movie, Slacker Uprising, on that there Internet a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, for would-be viewers outside the U.S. and Canada, trying to download the movie results in a great big fail whale.
And then the movie appeared on The Pirate Bay, where anyone can download it. Is this Mr. Moore’s doing, or the work of some busybody fan who wants to spread Moore’s film as far and wide as possible?
Well, we don’t know (of course), but Mr. Moore told TorrentFreak that he thinks copyright laws are wildly outdated—if he can buy a book, read it, then hand it over to a friend, why can’t he do the same with a downloadable movie?
Ding ding, Mr. Moore. That’s what we all want to know.
Looks like he has been slacking on a workout plan.
“We were attacked by a fat socialist weasel!”
“Mr. Moore told TorrentFreak that he thinks copyright laws are wildly outdated—if he can buy a book, read it, then hand it over to a friend, why can’t he do the same with a downloadable movie?”
Maybe that should be his next movie…
Definitely. It can be all about how making movies doesn’t cost any money, and new directors, producers, writers, etc, have the money to make whatever they want, and we all live in a happy land of happiness. Pay for movies? Why do that? They don’t cost anything to make, so why would anybody have to pay for a copy, when somebody can just lend them a copy? What an antiquated notion!
Do either of you know anyone in Hollywood who would fund us? We could totally make that movie.
Maybe we could just leap frog Hollywood, and go straight to financiers in the Middle East, i.e. AMD. They have more money than they know what to do with. I bet this movie is a better investment than another man made island or another indoor ski mountain.
Then again, the difference between books and movies is that you lend a friend a book, not give them a duplicate copy. If you wanted to give your friend a copy of the book, you’d have to buy it for them, unless you wanted to spend the money to copy each page.
The comparison kind of falls apart.
Did I miss how a free movie can be considered illegal to download? I might be hung over but…….
It’s illegal because it’s being distributed/published by a source the creator/copyright holder didn’t authorize. Mr Moore (or any other artist/copyright holder) can put copies in newspapers, cereal boxes, send it free over the net, mail it to people at random and give it away to the homeless if they like.
BUT…. the instant somebody sells a copy in a format and distribution the copyright holder didn’t authorize (be it bit torrent, Wal-Mart, or what have you), it’s illegal.
(There are various exceptions, of course, such is rights transfer, ie secondary resale and fair use exceptions.)