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Illegal file sharing sites is a topic that seems to never go away. The same could be said of malicious hackers and spam. And let’s not forget about those who want to rule the internet or tax it or overcharge for connection to it and use of it. But in terms of the specific story in this post, a writer being fired for illegally accessing a copy of a not yet released movie. What was he thinking?

Writer loses job over Wolverine
(from the BBC)

A US columnist is out of a job after posting an online review of an illegally downloaded copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Roger Friedman, who wrote the piece on his regular column, had worked at the Fox news website for 10 years.

Fox News said that the company’s representatives and Friedman “mutually agreed to part ways immediately”.

Here’s an interesting twist to the story.

Effects company denies leaking ‘Wolverine’
Friday, April 3 2009
By Lara Martin, Entertainment Reporter

An Australian visual effects company has denied leaking an unfinished workprint of X-Men Origins: Wolverine one month before its release.

What always accompanies stories in the main stream media and elsewhere are conflicting reports or widely differing estimates.

‘X-Men’ leak isn’t the real ‘Wolverine’
Tuesday, April 7th 2009
NY Daily News

Since word broke last week that a rough copy of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was leaked onto the Web, an estimated 75,000 people hoping to see a potential blockbuster early and for free have downloaded Hugh Jackman’s comic-book actioner, set for release May 1.

Aside from the comment that this is ‘not the real movie’ notice the ‘estimated 75,000′ part. It would be fair to assume they mean ‘not the real movie’ to indicate the leaked version is a working copy that will be edited before release.

‘Wolverine’ premiere may be in your town, or on your computer
07:45 AM PT, Apr 5 2009
LA Times

Wow, what is going to happen when “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” hits theaters on May 1?

More than 100,000 downloads of a nearly finished version of the film were snatched off of file-sharing websites this week after a copy of such a version of the 20th Century Fox film was leaked. The FBI is investigating and, believe me, the studio was badly rattled by the theft — this film, on paper, looked like it could be one of the biggest releases of 2009 but it has been encountering considerable turbulence for a movie still sitting on the runway.

You gotta love it. The 100,000 download estimate is from an item dated the fifth while the 75,000 estimate is from the seventh.

Wolverine Movie Bootleg: More than 1 Million Downloads
Monday April 6, 2009
AppScout

That leaked version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been online for about a week. And despite 20th Century Fox’s best efforts to curb its spread, the movie has been downloaded by more than one million users via BitTorrent.

But even better is the one million estimate offered on the date in between the other two. It may seem like a small thing and in this case it has the diminished value of who cares? Not so much who cares about the varying, correct or incorrect estimates but who cares about the movie? If you have an appreciation for storytelling or the cinematic experience, whatever that is these days, it is understandable you may be interested in this movie if the genre is your ‘thing’. But no matter what your interests or what you watch or how you fulfill the need to satisfy your personal demand for such leisure pursuits it is tough to argue that Hollywood and other sources for movies rarely fail to disappoint. The hype is also rarely justified after viewing the promoted offering.

To counter that conclusion readers are encouraged to submit their candidates for a list of spectacular examples of fine productions from the movie industry.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 11:56 am and is filed under Technology, wordpress, internet, News Media, Film, Law, Hol_ywood, Video, Net Neutrality, telecom, Opinion, Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.